Legal Meddling

[Anchor Lead]

The National Court Administration has been accused of trying to interfere with the damage compensation suit against the Japanese government filed by the victims of Japanese military sexual slavery. The incident took place while Supreme Court Chief Justice Yang Seung-tae was in office and immediately after the Park Geun-hye administration announced its final agreement with Japan on this wartime atrocity. The legal branch is suspected of supporting government policy by meddling with the lawsuits.

[Pkg]

On December 28, 2015, the Korean and the Japanese governments concluded the negotiation concerning the victims of Japan's organized sexual slavery during World War II.

[Soundbite] Yun Byung-se(Then Foreign Affairs Minister) : "Together with the Japanese government, we are certain that this issue will be resolved finally and irrevocably."

Two days after the announcement, the court handed down a decision that the petition for mediation submitted by the victims was not successful. The women had asked the Japanese government for damage compensation of 100 million won per person. Shortly after, the victims said they would officially file a suit against the Japanese government. Then the National Court Administration wrote up a document on January 4, 2016. It is titled "A report on the damage compensation rulings for comfort women." In the report, it is stated that the lawsuit should be dismissed. There was even an alternate solution if the ruling were not accepted. According to the report, the court should say it was forced to dismiss the case because the statute of limitations has run out. There were even parts of the suit that undermined the Korean government's external credibility and created diplomatic conflicts. It means that the first thing the Supreme Court did after the New Year's holiday was write up a document instructing how to intervene in the comfort women lawsuit. The elderly victims filed an actual suit against the Japanese government late that January, but not a single trial has taken place for two and a half years since then. Prosecutors are looking into other pertinent materials, believing that the National Court Administration may have interfered with the suit to fall in line with the Park Geun-hye administration's diplomatic policy.