Japan’s foreign minister accused South Korea on Monday of worsening already strained ties by making “illegal” demands for compensation for the sexual abuse of Korean women and the use of forced laborers during World War II. Toshimitsu Motegi, in a diplomatic policy speech in parliament, said a recent South Korean court ruling ordering Japan to compensate 12 South Korean women who were sexually abused in Japanese military brothels during the war was “an abnormal development absolutely unthinkable under international law and bilateral relations.” “We strongly urge South Korea to correct the violation of international law as soon as possible” and restore healthy relations, Motegi also said. The Seoul Central District Court ruled on Jan. 8 that the Japanese government must give 100 million won ($91,360) to each of 12 elderly women who filed lawsuits in 2013 over their wartime suffering as “comfort women.” The ruling worsened tensions between the two countries, whose relations had already plunged to the lowest level in decades over earlier South Korean rulings on Japan’s actions during its 1910-1945 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula. In Seoul, South Korean President Moon Jae-in said Monday that it “wouldn’t be desirable for bilateral relations” if Seoul and Tokyo fail to find a diplomatic solution before South Korean courts proceed with liquidating the local assets of the Japanese companies that were seized after they refused to compensate the Korean wartime laborers. Moon also described the “comfort women” ruling as “honestly a complicating” development for government efforts to improve relations with Japan.
Like Moon said, I also believe this is a very complicated matter. Although I believe these South Korean women deserve to be compensated for the horrific treatment they endured as “comfort women” during World War II, I also think asking for compensation only drags out past conflicts that the two countries need to move past from in order to have positive relations. I think if Japan were to acknowledge these women and their suffering, it would definitely help the situation more than just ignoring them and their compensation demands. It would be in both countries’ best interests if they could find a compromise, especially because the two are neighbors to North Korea and need to be able to work together in order to handle North Korea’s growing dominance of the region.