South Korean Court Rules Government Illegally Held Prostitutes that Catered to U.S. Soldiers in the 1960s and 1970s (January 20, 2017) [1]
On January 20, 2017, a three-judge panel of the Central District Court in Seoul ruled that the Korean government had violated Korean law by detaining and forcing treatment upon prostitutes that catered to U.S. soldiers in the 1960s and 1970s. According to a news report [3], the Court ordered the government to pay each of the fifty-seven plaintiffs the “equivalent of $4,240 each in compensation for physical and psychological damage,” though the judges stopped short of forcing the government to apologize or finding that it was responsible for creating and maintaining the camps in which the prostitution occurred. A lawyer representing the women said that they would appeal the ruling in hopes of a larger settlement, a finding of government responsibility, and an apology.