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Sejong University professor Park Yu-ha smiles after being acquitted of defamation at Seoul Dongbu District Court on Jan. 25. (Yonhap News)

A court acquitted Sejong University professor Park Yu-ha, 60, on charges of defaming Japanese military comfort women survivors with her book “Comfort Women of the Empire.”

Judge Lee Sang-yun of the 11th criminal division of Seoul Dongbu District Court made the ruling on Jan. 25.

“While there are there are some expressions corresponding to fact allegation in two of the 35 sections indicated by the prosecutors in their indictment, including claims that ‘some of the Japanese military comfort women from Korea became comfort women according to their own free will,’ this cannot be seen as a reference to comfort women collectively such that the plaintiffs were specified as victims,” the court said.

“Judging from the general content of the book, the main motivation for its writing was the goal of achieving reconciliation by building mutual trust between South Korea and Japan, and because its goal cannot be seen as to diminish societal estimation of the comfort women victims, intent to defame cannot be acknowledged,” it continued.

The court went on to say that the book “was a popular text of an academic character in which Prof. Park expressed her views from a position differing from the mainstream perspective, and determinations regarding Prof. Park’s opinions should be made in a process of mutual scrutiny and rebuttal by citizens and experts in academic and social forums.”

Former comfort women Lee Yong-su and Lee Ok-seon express disappointment with Sejong University professor Park Yu-ha’s acquittal on defamation charges

“For the sake of public debate and shaping of public opinion, freedom of expression must be broadly guaranteed,” it added. For 30 of the 35 passages cited by the prosecutors in their indictment of Park on defamation charges, the court concluded that Park was expressing her opinion, which did not constitute defamation. Three passages in which she claimed that Japan and its military had not actually instituted formal policies to forcibly capture Korean women and force them to serve as comfort women were found to constitute fact allegation rather than defamation.

“She should be found guilty. This is unacceptable,” said comfort woman survivor Lee Yong-su, 90, from the gallery after the ruling was pronounced.

Yang Seung-bong, an attorney representing the comfort women survivors, said, “In a defamation decision, the question of whether something is fact allegation or an expression of opinion is an important question, yet the court only found five of the 35 [passages] to constitute fact allegation.”

“It’s incomprehensible. The court seems to have lacked an understanding of the book,” Yang said, adding that additional refutation materials would be provided if the prosecutors appeal.

By Kim Kyu-nam, staff reporter

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