Japan and South Korea show enduring rift over sexual slavery issue in letters to UN

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SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Japan’s government on Monday defended its stance on wartime sexual slavery and described South Korean court rulings ordering Japanese compensation as violations of international law, after U.N. investigators criticized Tokyo for failing to ensure truth-finding and reparations for the victims.

In its own response to U.N. human rights rapporteurs, South Korea called on Japan to “squarely face up to our painful history” and cited how Tokyo’s refusal to comply with court orders have denied the victims payment. The statements underscored how the two Asian U.S. allies still hold key differences on the issue, even as they pause their on-and-off disputes over historical grievances to stabilize bilateral relations.

A group of U.N. investigators in July sent letters to Japan and South Korea as well as China, the Philippines, Indonesia, the Netherlands and East Timor — where sexual slavery victims also come from — over what they described as the countries’ failures to “ensure access to truth, justice, remedy, and reparations for survivors.” The governments were given 60 days to respond, but only the responses from Japan and South Korea were posted on a U.N. website on Monday.

U.N. investigators had asked Japan to address various concerns, including claims that its past investigations and reparations regarding sexual slavery were insufficient, that it continues to evade state and legal responsibility, and its refusal to comply with three South Korean court rulings from 2021 to 2025 ordering compensation for victims.

Japan responded by reiterating its long-standing position that all compensation matters with South Korea over sexual slavery victims were settled by past agreements, including the 1965 treaty normalizing relations and a separate 2015 deal aimed at resolving their differences on the issue.

The Japanese statement, issued by its permanent mission in Geneva, claimed that the recent Korean court rulings violated the principle of state immunity in such lawsuits and urged Seoul to “take appropriate measures to remedy its breaches of international law as a country.”

Japan in past years has strongly rejected South Korean court rulings ordering the government in Tokyo and Japanese companies to provide reparations to Korean victims of sexual slavery and also wartime forced labor, another legacy of Japan’s brutal colonial rule of Korea before the end of World War II. Japan says the rulings violate its sovereign immunity and go against the 1965 treaty. South Korean courts contend that sovereign immunity does not protect foreign states from accountability for crimes against humanity or wrongful acts committed on South Korea’s territory against its nationals.

Following Japan’s refusal to comply with the court orders, some South Korean experts and survivors, including Lee Yong-soo, have called on Tokyo and Seoul to jointly refer their sexual slavery disputes to U.N.’s International Court of Justice, but no action yet has been taken.

Historians say tens of thousands of women from around Asia, many of them Korean, were sent to front-line military brothels to provide sex to Japanese soldiers. At the time of the 2015 deal, 46 of the 239 women who registered with the Seoul government as victims were still alive in South Korea, but there are now only 6.

Japan has repeatedly expressed regret over the wartime sexual slavery. In 1995, Japanese officials conducted a study of the practice and established a fund from private contributions to compensate victims in the Philippines, South Korea, and Taiwan before it expired in 2007. Many South Koreans believe Tokyo’s previous statements and actions lacked sincerity and failed to acknowledge legal responsibility, a perception further reinforced by conservative leaders who later downplayed or questioned Japan’s wartime past.

Relations between South Korea and Japan have often been strained in past years over historical issues, but the two countries have recently taken more active steps to repair ties while strengthening trilateral cooperation with the United States to address growing regional challenges, including the North Korean nuclear threat.

In August, South Korean President Lee Jae Myung visited Tokyo to meet Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, just before flying to Washington for a summit with President Donald Trump, in a rare diplomatic setup that underscored how Trump’s unilateral push to reset global trade and U.S. security commitments is drawing the often-feuding neighbors closer.