South Korea’s Ewha Womans University vows to sue politician over ‘comfort women’ remarks

The Democratic Party’s Kim Jun-hyeok claims the university’s first president helped send ‘comfort women’ to Japan and forced students to provide sexual favours to US soldiers
Ewha says Kim’s ‘unverified and speculative’ have damaged the school’s reputation and are based on a discriminatory view of women

South Korea

SCMP’s Asia desk

Published: 6:30pm, 3 Apr 2024

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South Korea’s oldest women’s university has threatened an opposition politician with legal action over accusations that the institution forced its students to provide sexual favours to US troops deployed in the country following the end of Japan’s colonial rule in 1945.

The Democratic Party’s Kim Jun-hyeok, who is contesting the April 10 general election, made the claim on a YouTube channel last year.

He alleged that Kim Hwal-lan, the first president of Ewha Womans University, had a major role in sending wartime “comfort women” to Japan and that she also coerced the varsity’s students to provide sexual favours to American soldiers overseeing the southern half of the Korean peninsula from 1945 to 1948.

The Democratic Party of Korea’s Kim Jun-hyeok in Suwon, South Korea, on March 14. Photo: Yonhap

Ewha, founded in 1946, called on the professor turned politician to withdraw from the parliamentary race and pledged to sue him for tarnishing the image of the university and its members, Yonhap reported.

Kim Jun-hyeok’s “unverified and speculative” remarks not only seriously damaged the reputation of the school, its students, professors and alumni, but were also based on a discriminatory and distorted view of all women, Ewha said in a statement.

According to recent surveys, the Democratic Party is projected to retain its majority in the 300-member National Assembly as the ruling People Power Party has been hobbled by President Yoon Suk-yeol’s declining approval rating amid a weeks-long stand-off between his government and striking doctors over a plan to increase the medical school admissions quota by 2,000 per year.

The legacy of Japan’s colonial rule of the Korean peninsula remains politically sensitive for both sides, with many surviving “comfort women” – a Japanese euphemism for the sex abuse victims – still demanding Tokyo’s formal apology and compensation.

Tokyo has maintained the matter was settled under a 1965 treaty that normalised diplomatic relations between the two countries.

South Korea court orders Japan to compensate ‘comfort women’

But the issues of wartime sex abuse and forced labour had inflamed ties for years, though Yoon and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida have sought to bury the hatchet to tackle security challenges posed by North Korea and China.

There are more than 28,000 US troops stationed in South Korea in a bid to deter aggression from the nuclear-armed North.

The neighbours remain technically in a state of war since the Korean war from 1950 to 1953 ended in an armistice rather than a peace treaty.

Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden is considering holding a trilateral meeting with Yoon and Kishida on the sidelines of a Nato summit in July in Washington.

The three leaders are expected to discuss a host of issues, including addressing China’s growing military strength and North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats.