More than 100 South Korean women have filed a landmark lawsuit targeting the United States military over its role in a state-sanctioned sex trade.
According to the New York Times, the complaint seeks compensation for roughly 120 women who were forced to work as prostitutes for American G.I.s stationed in South Korea.
The suit was filed in a Seoul court on Friday (September 5), several years after the defendants successfully sued the South Korean government for establishing, managing, and operating brothels that catered to U.S. military personnel from the 1950s to the 1980s.
In 2022, South Korea’s Supreme Court upheld previous rulings that found its government responsible for the exploitation of the plaintiffs, some of whom were teenagers when they were forced to work as "comfort women" for American soldiers. Although the women received compensation from South Korea, their latest lawsuit seeks to hold the U.S. military accountable for its involvement in the decades-long abuse.
According to the suit, the women were placed in state-sanctioned brothels through kidnapping or false promises of work. They were also subjected to STD/STI testing twice a week. Per the Times, "The infected women, but not their G.I. partners, were locked up in facilities with barred windows where they were heavily dosed with penicillin; some died of penicillin shock, according to the women. The U.S. military demanded the isolation of the women in such facilities, and the local government acquiesced, the women’s lawyers said, citing supporting documents."
One of the plaintiffs said she was 17 when she was lured into one of the "camp towns," a cluster of brothels and bars developed near U.S. military bases. The areas were reportedly established to help boost the South Korean economy with U.S. dollars and to maintain friendly ties with American servicemen.
"Every night we were dragged to U.S. soldiers and sexually abused," she said, as reported by AFP. "Every week we were forced to undergo venereal disease tests. If there was the slightest abnormality, we were locked in a small room and injected with a thick needle of strong penicillin. The shots were so harsh that my legs gave out and I couldn’t even walk."
The plaintiffs are seeking 10 million won ($7,200) in compensation.