ID :
204390
Tue, 08/30/2011 - 14:18
Auther :

Court says Seoul's inaction over former 'comfort women' unconstitutional

SEOUL, Aug. 30 (Yonhap) -- A top South Korean court said Tuesday that it is unconstitutional for the government to make no tangible effort to settle disputes with Japan over its refusal to compensate Korean women mobilized as sex slaves during its 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.
The Constitutional Court ruled in a 6-3 vote that the government violated the basic rights of the former "comfort women" with its inaction.



Tokyo acknowledges that the recruitment of comfort women, mostly from Korea but also from Taiwan, the Philippines and China, did occur but insists that it was done by private agencies and not the government.
Historians say more than 200,000 women fell victim to the Imperial Japanese Army, which coaxed or forced young girls to work in front-line brothels.

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