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| A memorial statue for "comfort women" sits amid citizens calling for a proper resolution to the wartime sexual slavery issue in front of the former Japanese Embassy building in central Seoul, Apr. 10. / Yonhap |
By Lee Suh-yoon
The Seoul High Court overturned a lower court ruling that ordered the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to disclose details of its 2015 settlement with Japan over the issue of wartime sexual slavery, Thursday.
Taking the side of the ministry, the appeals court ruled the undisclosed records of the closed-door negotiations behind the 2015 deal should remain sealed for reasons of diplomatic protocol.
"Disclosing details of this deal will be a big blow to the credibility of our government, weakening our diplomatic bargaining power in future dealings with Japan," the court said in its ruling. "The reason why diplomatic negotiations take place behind closed doors is because it allows parties to freely exchange opinions and take each other's positions into consideration to include some 'formalities' in the agreement. Such content, when disclosed, can easily become the subject of a diplomatic or political conflict."
Thursday's ruling significantly deviated from the lower court ruling in 2017, which said the Japanese government had already broken diplomatic protocol while making the 2015 deal by disclosing the details of previous deals between the two countries.
"If the Dec. 28 (2015) deal is a final and irreversible resolution to the Japanese military comfort women issue, victims as well as the Korean people must know under what conditions the Japanese government is offering an apology and funding, and how that negotiation process was carried out," the Seoul Administrative Court said Jan. 6, 2017.
Song Ki-ho, a lawyer from Lawyers for a Democratic Society, who brought the information disclosure suit to court on behalf of the victims, said he will appeal to the Supreme Court.
"Despite the distinct rules and protocol of diplomatic relations, issues like these cannot be separated from the realm of human rights," Song told The Korea Times after the ruling. "The ruling does not live up to the gravity of the subject."
The 2015 deal was supposed to be a "final and irreversible" resolution to the two countries' longstanding dispute over Japan's refusal to recognize and apologize for forcing Korean women, euphemistically known as "comfort women," to work in frontline brothels set up for Japanese soldiers before and during World War II.
Under the agreement, the Japanese government offered a vaguely phrased apology that recognized the issue as "a matter of grave injury to the honor and dignity of many women under the involvement of (Japanese) military authorities at the time" and provided funds to set up the Reconciliation and Healing Foundation.
But the agreement ― made under the now-ousted conservative President Park Geun-hye ― was rejected by many Koreans, including a handful of surviving victims who say the deal freed Japan of legal responsibility for the wartime crime in exchange for a half-drafted apology.
After President Park's impeachment, public activism mounted against the 2015 deal. More than seven in 10 Koreans replied the 2015 bilateral agreement should be renegotiated, according to a poll published by The Korea Times' sister paper the Hankook Ilbo in July last year.
In November last year, the Moon Jae-in government effectively voided the agreement with a decision to shut down the Reconciliation and Healing Foundation.
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