In South Korea, a court has asked the Japanese government in Korea to find out if there are any assets that the plaintiffs can seize in connection with the decision to order compensation from the Japanese government in a proceeding over the comfort women issue. It was revealed on the 15th that it ordered the disclosure of an inventory of an asset.
In this case, in January, the Seoul Central District Court ordered the Japanese government to pay a total of 1.2 billion won, or about 118 million yen in Japanese yen, over the comfort women issue.
The Government of Japan did not attend the trial and did not appeal because the sovereign state should be dismissed from the principle of "sovereign immunity" under international law, which is not subject to the jurisdiction of other countries. Therefore, the judgment was finalized.
In response, the plaintiffs filed a motion to the district court in April to disclose an inventory of the assets of the Japanese government to be seized in order to find out if they were in South Korea.
The plaintiff's lawyer revealed on June 15 that the district court granted the motion and issued a decision on June 9 ordering the Japanese government to disclose a list of assets in South Korea.
The decision states that foreclosure is possible because this trial is an exception to "sovereign immunity," and that the deterioration of Japan-South Korea relations due to foreclosure is a problem that should be resolved in the political arena.
The assets of the Japanese embassy in Seoul are protected by the Vienna Convention, and the Japanese government urges the Korean government to take appropriate measures, saying that the ruling is "contrary to international law."