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| Nine justices take their place inside the Constitutional Court in central Seoul, Friday. The court ruled on the constitutionality of the former Park Geun-hye administration's 2015 "comfort women" agreement with Japan on this day. / Yonhap |
2015 deal was invalid and non-binding in the first place, court says
By Lee Suh-yoon
Following almost four years of deliberation, the Constitutional Court turned down a constitutional challenge, Friday, over a controversial 2015 deal between Seoul and Tokyo on former sex slaves who were taken to Japanese military brothels during World War II.
It said the deal is not subject to its formal review.
"The 2015 deal was a political agreement and the court will leave the various appraisals of this deal to the political realm," Chief Justice Yoo Nam-seok said.
In the ruling, the court reasoned the 2015 deal was too vague and non-binding in nature to pose a potential violation of rights to victims, saying the phrasing of the 2015 deal was non-binding and lacking in concrete details or plans. It also added that the deal did not go through the formal procedures required of binding treaties.
"The deal does not dispose of the victims' rights or quash the Korean government's power to provide diplomatic protection to them," Justice Yoo said. "So the deal does not affect the victims' legal standing or rights in the first place."
In early 2016, 29 then-surviving former sex slaves and 12 relatives of deceased victims asked the court to review the constitutionality of the Park Geun-hye administration's 2015 deal with Tokyo, under which Tokyo would pay 1 billion yen to set up a foundation to support the victims and the two countries would settle the issue "finally and irreversibly."
The victims said the deal dodged the need for official reparations and effectively annulled Japan's future legal responsibility in the matter by specifying it to be final and irreversible. They claimed the agreement infringed on their dignity, property rights and the right to be protected diplomatically.
The controversy worsened after Japan's foreign ministry official told a U.N. committee that the Japanese government found no evidence "comfort women" were forcibly taken away, calling it fabricated testimony ― less than two months after the 2015 agreement was reached. Following public outcry, the Moon Jae-in administration last year shut down the Japan-funded foundation.
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| Gil Won-ok, center, a former sex slave at Japanese military's "comfort stations," celebrates her 91st birthday at a restaurant in Seoul, Nov. 19, with a special visit from Estellita, right, a Filipina victim of Japanese wartime sex slavery. / Yonhap |
A 1996 U.N. human rights report says around 200,000 women were forcibly drafted into Japanese military brothels between 1932 and 1945, though more conservative estimates put the figure at around 20,000. According to wartime documents recently uncovered by Kyodo News Agency, the Imperial Japanese Army requested "one comfort woman for every 70 soldiers."
In 1993, the Japanese government recognized that its military forced women into the frontline brothels. However, it later changed its stance, saying there was not enough evidence to prove that what happened at the euphemistically coined "comfort stations" was against the will of the women and girls who were brought there.
Minbyun lawyers representing the victims said they were not disappointed by all parts of the verdict, as it did strip down the legitimacy of the 2015 agreement.
"The government says it will try to remedy the damage done to victims but still maintains the 2015 deal was an official agreement that cannot be scrapped for another negotiation. But the Constitutional Court's decision today proved the deal is not a formal and official treaty, perhaps giving the government some legal room to more strongly press for another agreement," Minbyun lawyer Lee Dong-jun said.
Seoul-Tokyo ties are currently frayed over a series of wartime forced labor court rulings here.
Last month, National Assembly Speaker Moon Hee-sang came under heavy fire after proposing a bill to compensate surviving South Korean victims of wartime forced labor through a foundation partly funded by remaining funds in the short-lived "Reconciliation and Healing Foundation" created by the 2015 deal.
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