Ten former South Korean sex slaves for Japan’s World War II soldiers have pressed a court to open their case against Japan seeking compensation over their ordeal.
Kim Kang-won, a lawyer who represents the elderly women, submitted a document last week stating that the clients will not seek mediation over their case.
South Korea and Japan are preparing to hold crucial talks on Monday to try to arrive at a deal on wartime sexual slavery.
In October, Kim asked the Seoul Central District Court to end mediation and formally open a lawsuit, though the court did not make its decision on the case for two months.
“The mediation has been deadlocked, as Japan has even refused to accept documents,” Kim said.
In 2013, a dozen elderly South Korean women filed for mediation to the court seeking 100 million won ($85,000) in compensation each.
Still, the Japanese government returned the relevant documents to the court, insisting that the South Korean court does not have jurisdiction over the Japanese government.
The court set June 15 and July 13 as dates for mediation and asked the Japanese government to send its representative, but no Japanese official showed up.
Two of the 12 elderly women have since died, lowering the number of plaintiffs to 10.
It remains unclear whether the court will accept the elderly women’s request for a formal suit against Japan.
Japan insists the compensation issue was settled under the normalization treaty of 1965. (Yonhap)
