hankyoreh

“Comfort women” survivor Lee Yong-soo, 92, speaks to reporters as she leaves the Seoul Central District Court on Wednesday. (Kim Myoung-Jin/The Hankyoreh)

Dressed in a beautiful jade-colored hanbok dress, Lee Yong-soo suddenly burst into tears.

The tears she shed were not tears of release for the 93-year-old, who had arrived in her wheelchair that day hoping for some satisfaction after 80 years of bitterness. They were tears of despair and astonishment after she learned that she would not be receiving that consolation even from her own country’s court.

The 15th civil division of the Seoul Central District Court under judge Min Seong-cheol dismissed a case Wednesday filed by Lee, the late Kwak Ye-nam and other survivors of Japanese military sexual slavery, and 20 family members of victims against the Japanese government to demand compensation.

With its dismissal, the court put an end to the trial process without hearing the case on its merits — having concluded that it did not meet the prerequisites for a lawsuit. It was a different decision from the one reached by the first trial court in an initial suit filed by 12 other victims, which concluded in January that the Japanese government bore responsibility for compensation.

After hearing the decision, Lee turned her wheelchair around and left the courtroom without hearing the rest of the judge’s explanation. For a while, she remained lost for words.

“I’m just stunned,” she finally said after wiping her tears away.

“I fully intend to take this matter to the International Court of Justice. That’s all I have to say,” she added before leaving.

After battling for over a decade to hold Japanese responsible for war crimes committed against young girls, the survivors found their path flatly blocked by the legal principle of state immunity.

“The efforts expended domestically and internationally by South Korea and the results that they achieved may have appeared inadequate to make up for the suffering and losses to the victims, and the agreement reached by South Korea and Japan [on the military sexual slavery issue] in December 2015 may not be viewed as fully satisfactory compared with the pain that they had to suffer through in the past,” the court said.

At the same time, it added, “According to the customary international law that is valid at present with regard to state immunity and the related Supreme Court precedents, requests from compensation from the Japanese government for sovereign acts cannot be permitted.”

“In terms of whether a South Korean court has trial authority against the Japanese government, the decision can only be based on the South Korean Constitution and law, or on customary international law that holds the same validity,” it said.

Regarding whether an exemption might be made for state immunity, the court said, “Because this is a matter that could potentially influence South Korea’s diplomatic policy and national interest, there would need first to be a policy decision by the executive and legislature.”

“It would not be appropriate for a court to grant an exception while presenting only very abstract standards,” it continued.

The court also shared the conclusion that the intergovernmental agreement reached with Japan during the Park Geun-hye administration in 2015 could be viewed as the Japanese government offering a remedy for the violation of rights.

According to this interpretation, the agreement was the Japanese government’s expression of apology and remorse to the victims, while its agreement to fund the establishment of a foundation and pursue recovery efforts for the harm suffered should be seen as having offered an “alternative remedy for the violation of rights.”

“As South Korea has stated several times, the resolution of the ‘comfort women’ victim issue must be achieved through internal and external efforts by South Korea, including diplomatic negotiations with the Japanese government,” the court said.

The court came to the exact opposite conclusion from the one reached by the first court in January after hearing a case filed by the late military sexual slavery survivor Bae Chun-hee and 11 others against the Japanese government to demand compensation.

In that case, the 34th civil division of the Seoul Central District Court under judge Kim Jeong-gon ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, ordering the payment of 100 million won ($89,521) to each of them.

“It is unreasonable to interpret jurisdiction as being exempted for anti-human rights actions that destroy universal values of the international community,” the court explained at the time about its decision not to recognize state immunity.

Lee is among only four out of 10 plaintiffs who remain alive five years after the lawsuit was filed in 2016.

Lee Sang-hee, an attorney representing the victims, criticized the court for “fretting about the national interest throughout its ruling, without saying a single word about the biggest reason driving the victims to request damages, namely recovery for the harm they suffered as human beings.”

Lee Na-young, head of the Korean Council for Justice and Remembrance for the Issues of Military Sexual Slavery by Japan, asked, “Are they saying that even when a country’s people suffer grievous infringements of human rights, they cannot hold the perpetrator responsible because it is another country?”

“History will look with shame upon today’s ruling, which disregarded the desperate appeals of the victims and forsook responsibility as the last bulwark of human rights,” she said.

Arnold Fang, an East Asia researcher for Amnesty International, said that the ruling was “deeply disappointing it its failure to achieve justice not only for survivors of the Japanese military sexual slavery system but also for other victims like them who passed away after suffering brutal acts during World War II.”

The plaintiffs plan to appeal the decision.

The NHK network quoted a Japanese Foreign Ministry official as calling the decision an “appropriate and obvious outcome.”

By Joh Yun-yeong, staff reporter

Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]