South Korean scholar acquitted of defaming sexual slavery victims during Japan colonial rule

By HYUNG-JIN KIM
Associated Press

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s top court has cleared a scholar of charges that she defamed Korean sexual slavery victims during the Japanese colonial rule in her contentious book published in 2013. Thursday’s ruling in the criminal case of Park Yu-ha isn’t the end of her long-running legal battle: she faces a separate civil suit. In 2017, the Seoul High Court fined Park 10 million won ($7,360) over some of the expressions she used in her book to describe the slavery victims. But the Supreme Court ruled it’s difficult to determine those expressions constitute criminal defamation, saying it’s more appropriate to assess them as Park’s academic arguments.