Court upholds school's decision to sack professor for defaming 'comfort women'

By Bahk Eun-ji

The Gwangju District Court has upheld a school's decision to dismiss a professor who made offensive remarks about victims of Japan's wartime sexual slavery.

A former professor of Sunchon National University was fired in October 2017 for inappropriate comments by telling his class, April 26, 2017, that some Korean women probably knew exactly what they were signing up for and volunteered to become “comfort women,” choosing to go because they had “skills.”

“Considering his position as a national university professor, he committed a serious crime of spreading false information and defaming the comfort women,” the court ruled.

The professor, identified by his surname Song, was also sentenced to six months in prison after Sunchon Nabi, a civic group supportive of the former sex slaves, accused him of spreading false information and defaming the victims, who were forced to work as prostitutes in brothels for Japanese soldiers before and during World War II.

During his first court hearing, Song said the words were not intended to defame the women, and he just wanted to put an emphasis on the women who were lured into following Japanese soldiers during the wartime, considering the overall context of the class.

However, the Gwangju High Court dismissed the appeal and confirmed the six-month jail term with the university's decision to dismiss him from a professor position.