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Seoul (AP) - South Korean victims of sexual slavery by the Japanese military in World War II have suffered a serious setback in their fight for compensation.
The central district court in Seoul dismissed the compensation claims against Japan by 20 former sex slaves and victim relatives in a civil case on Wednesday.
South Korean broadcasters reported that the court had cited state immunity, according to which one state may not sit in court over another.
If exceptions to this principle of international law were allowed, diplomatic upheavals would be inevitable.
According to historians, tens of thousands of Koreans and other Asian women were forced to serve the Japanese military in front brothels during the Second World War.
Only 15 South Koreans are registered as survivors of the former sex slavery.
Korea was a Japanese colony from 1910 to 1945.
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Tokyo sees the issue of compensation as concluded by a bilateral treaty of 1965.
The dispute over compensation for sex slaves and former forced laborers from Korea has strained relations between the two neighboring countries for decades.
In January, the same court in Seoul had ruled in another case that Japan should pay compensation in 12 cases.
The criticism from Amnesty International and activists who support the victims was all the more violent.
"Today's decision is a great disappointment because it does not deliver justice to the survivors of this military slavery system," said Amnesty East Asia researcher Arnold Fang.
This judgment contradicts the decision of January.
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The 92-year-old co-plaintiff Lee Yong Soo, who campaigns for a compensation settlement as a victim, called the decision "absurd".
"Despite the verdict, we will take the case to the International Court of Justice," she told journalists.
In 2016, the plaintiff group demanded compensation of 200 million won (about 149,000 euros) per person affected.
In its current judgment, the court also referred to a controversial agreement in South Korea between the governments in Seoul and Tokyo from 2015, through which the dispute over sex slavery should be settled.
The court was quoted as saying that victims' opinions were also heard at the time.
Some of the victims also received money from a foundation that was founded at the time, which was later dissolved.
South Korea's constitutional court rejected a complaint against this agreement at the end of 2019.
The court took the view that it was a "political agreement" that had not been ratified by the parliaments and was therefore not legally binding.
The victims and their families had argued that the agreement was reached without their consent.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210421-99-291514 / 2