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| President Moon Jae-in speaks on the phone with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, Sept. 24, at Cheong Wa Dae. Courtesy of Cheong Wa Dae |
By Do Je-hae
A local court ruling over a historical issue between Korea and Japan has emerged as another major impediment to President Moon Jae-in's plan to use the upcoming Tokyo Olympics as a platform for diplomacy among key players in the region.
The Seoul Central District Court's Jan. 8 ruling ordered the Japanese government to pay compensation of $91,200 to each of 12 Korean women who were victims of sexual slavery practices by the Japanese Army before and during World War II. The ruling triggered an intense backlash from Tokyo and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, who said Japan could never accept the ruling.
"The comfort women issue between Japan and South Korea has already been resolved completely and definitely," Suga told reporters after the ruling.
Suga's hardline stance is expected to further aggravate the mood between the two countries ahead of the Olympics. He has already refused to visit Korea for the Korea-Japan-China summit unless Seoul brings a resolution to another issue, this one on forced labor.
Seoul has eyed the Tokyo games particularly as a platform for improving inter-Korean relations through sports cooperation, such as forming a unified team and joint entrance at the opening ceremony. Moon has also wanted to use the Games to improve relations with Japan by sending a high-level delegation, reciprocating the attendance of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to the opening ceremony of the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games.
The ruling on reparations for the comfort women comes as the two countries have yet to find significant headway in resolving the existing dispute from the 2018 Supreme Court ruling that ordered Japanese firms to pay compensation to the surviving South Korean victims of forced labor during the 1910-45 colonial rule.
One of the biggest points of contention between Korea and Japan has been their differences on the 1965 normalization treaty, which Japan has used as the basis to claim that all colonial-era settlements were completed when it provided grants and loans under the Korea-Japan Claims Settlement Agreement attached to the treaty.
Moon is expected to speak on the issue during a New Year press conference slated for later this month.
