"Comfort women are a form of prostitution," telling a female student, "If you're curious, do you want to try?"
The Supreme Court concluded that the university's disciplinary action to suspend Ryu Seok-chun, former Innovation Committee Chairman of the Liberty Korea Party, who made sexually harassing remarks to a student while lecturing on the Japanese military 'comfort women' issue in 2019, was appropriate.
According to the legal community on the 12th, the Supreme Court's 3rd Division (Presiding Justice Noh Jeong-hee) finalized on the 9th the lower court's ruling dismissing Ryu's lawsuit seeking to "cancel the decision of the Faculty Appeal Committee."
Ryu, a former professor in the Department of Sociology at Yonsei University, stated during a major course on September 19, 2019, that "(the direct perpetrator of the comfort women issue) is not Japan," and that "(comfort women) are a type of prostitution." When a female student asked, "Does that mean the comfort women victims went voluntarily?" Ryu explained, "Even now, the process of entering prostitution is partly voluntary and partly involuntary," and added, "If you're curious, do you want to try it once?" This sparked controversy over sexual harassment. Yonsei University regarded Ryu's remarks as verbal sexual harassment and imposed a one-month suspension in July 2020. Ryu filed a lawsuit challenging the disciplinary action.
The first-instance court ruled that "(the remarks) implied that the woman should directly experience how one becomes involved in prostitution," and judged that it constituted sexual harassment that could cause sexual humiliation or disgust. The court did not accept Ryu's defense that he meant for the student to conduct investigation or research rather than prostitution. This was because Ryu only explained that comfort women were involved in prostitution before and after the remarks, without mentioning any research activities.
Ryu also claimed in the appellate court that the disciplinary procedure was flawed, but all claims were rejected. The appellate court also found the disciplinary action appropriate. Although Ryu appealed, the Supreme Court dismissed the appeal without oral argument, thereby upholding the ruling. Even after the remarks were reported, Ryu maintained the position that "there was nothing wrong." He currently has a photo introducing his YouTube channel with the phrase "If you're curious, do you want to try (subscribe, like) once?" written on it.
Ryu was also criminally prosecuted for his statement that "comfort women are a type of prostitution," but was acquitted in the first trial. The prosecution has appealed and the appellate trial is ongoing.
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