Ryu Sukchun Loses Damages Lawsuit Over "Comfort Women Were Prostitutes" Remarks... Ordered to Pay 5 Million Won

Six Years After Jeongdaehyeop Filed Lawsuit
Jeongdaehyeop: "Ryu Sukchun Must Reflect and Apologize"

Ryu Sukchun (70), former Yonsei University professor who made remarks such as "comfort women for the Japanese military were voluntary prostitutes" during a university lecture, has been ordered by a court to pay damages to the Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan (Jeongdaehyeop, predecessor of the Korean Council for Justice and Remembrance).

Sukchun Ryu, former Yonsei University professor. Yonhap News

According to the legal community and the Korean Council for Justice and Remembrance on June 13, Judge Lee Gwanhyeong of the Seoul Western District Court’s Civil Division 12 ruled on this day that Ryu must pay 5 million won in damages in a partial victory for the plaintiff in the damages lawsuit filed by Jeongdaehyeop against the former professor. This ruling comes about six years after Jeongdaehyeop filed the lawsuit in October 2019, claiming that Ryu’s remarks constituted defamation.

After the verdict, the Korean Council for Justice and Remembrance released a statement saying, "We hope this ruling will serve as a warning to those who deny and distort historical truth," and added, "Ryu Sukchun should accept the loss in the damages lawsuit, reflect on his actions, and apologize to the victims."

The statement continued, "However, it is regrettable that current law only allows for this level of compensation, despite the fact that the dignity of the victims was violated and false information was spread about the victims and civic groups, resulting in defamation."

In 2019, Ryu was sued for defamation after claiming in his 'Development Sociology' class at Yonsei University's Department of Sociology that "the direct perpetrator (regarding comfort women) is not Japan (the government)" and that "comfort women were a form of prostitution."

Ryu was also fined in a separate criminal trial for defamation against Jeongdaehyeop for remarks suggesting that "Jeongdaehyeop educated the comfort women grandmothers to testify as if they had been forcibly mobilized by the Japanese military." The Supreme Court upheld the lower court's sentence of a 2 million won fine in February. However, the Supreme Court acquitted him of the charge of defaming the honor of the comfort women victims themselves.