Professor Park Yu-ha, author of ”Comfort Women of the Empire,” wins appeal in damages lawsuit... Court rules that description is ”objective” (South Korea)

Park Yu-ha (68), professor emeritus at Sejong University and author of "Comfort Women of the Empire," who was embroiled in a lawsuit for defaming former comfort women, has won his appeal.
The court ruled that the book in question was an academic work, and that Professor Park had not engaged in misconduct that significantly deviated from the scope of what is normally accepted in the academic field.
On the 22nd, the Seoul High Court ruled against the plaintiffs in an appeal against a lawsuit for damages filed by nine former comfort women against Professor Park, ruling that it was difficult to determine whether the plaintiffs had violated their rights.
In the first instance, the court ordered compensation of 10 million won per person, totaling 90 million won (approximately 9.78 million yen). The High Court stated that "the books in question are academic and objective descriptions," and that "the plaintiffs
Even if the plaintiffs were emotionally affected, when comparing and sentencing such disadvantages against the constitutional value of guaranteeing academic freedom, it is difficult to say that the defendant violated the plaintiffs' personal rights beyond the limit of what was intolerable.
Furthermore, while acknowledging that "the defendant's views may not be widely supported," the court also ruled that "these views should be verified through the evaluation and discussion process in academia and society.
"Also, easily accepting liability for tortious conduct could unduly curtail the right to freely express views," the court said.
In August 2013, Professor Park said that the comfort women issue was a collection of individual victims mobilized for the desires of imperialism.
The book contains three passages describing comfort women as "spiritual comforters," "patriotic girls who helped soldiers wage war," and "voluntary prostitutes."
In response, nine former comfort women filed a lawsuit against Professor Park in July 2014, seeking 30 million won in compensation each. The first-instance ruling was handed down two years later in 2016.
However, since Professor Park was separately indicted on charges of defamation and a criminal trial was underway, the civil trial was halted pending the outcome.
The Supreme Court is expected to acquit Professor Park in October 2023, and his innocence was confirmed in April last year.
"We must be cautious in assessing the expression of opinions as factual allegations in a defamation case," he said, "and in cases where the expression violates basic research ethics or significantly deviates from the scope of what is normally accepted in the relevant field and disrupts the academic process."
"In principle, unless it is the result of an act that cannot be considered scientific or other legitimate, or there are special circumstances that infringe on the rights of others through expressions that are unrelated to the argument or context, it is a legitimate act for academic research."