Kenji Yoshida 
Lew Seok-choon addresses reporters following his Supreme Court ruling on Thursday, February 13. (©Kenji Yoshida).
On February 13, South Korea's Supreme Court ruled in the criminal defamation case against former Yonsei University professor Lew Seok-choon. In October 2020, Lew was criminally indicted on three counts of defamation for remarks made during his 2019 developmental sociology lecture. During this lecture, he allegedly disparaged ex-comfort women and the Korean Council ー South Korea's largest comfort women support group.
The nation's top court dismissed appeals from the defense and prosecution, affirming an earlier ruling that acquitted Lew of all major charges except one minor count.
Opinion, Not Defamation
Earlier in January 2024, an appeals court ruled that Lew's characterization of comfort women as a "type of prostitution" did not constitute defamation. It reasoned that Lew did not target any specific individual.
Under local law, a defendant is generally convicted of criminal defamation if three conditions are met: the offender intentionally misrepresents a fact, the falsehood harms a person's social reputation, and the offender recognizes the statement to be untrue.
Similarly, Lew's remarks on the Korean Council's ties to the now-defunct pro-North Korean Unified Progressive Party were deemed an expression of opinion rather than defamation. In his lecture, the former professor highlighted the overlap between the Korean Council's directors and the UPP's leadership.
Partial Conviction Upheld
However, the appeals court took a different stance regarding Lew's comments suggesting that the Korean Council coached ex-comfort women to testify according to its preferences. Lew claimed that the Korean Council had instructed the women to falsely assert that the Japanese military had forcibly mobilized them during the colonial era.
Ruling this statement false and defamatory, the court ordered a fine of ₩200 million KRW (approximately $1,500 USD).
Standing outside the courthouse, Lew stated, "My case has proven that the claim of comfort women being forcibly taken is inaccurate. I am both pleased and relieved that the court has confirmed the legal soundness of what I lectured to students at Yonsei University in September 2019."
"There is a fine of ₩2 million KRW attached to it, but that's a dispute with Yoon Mee Hyang (former head of the Korean Council) and the Korean Council. Therefore, it's not significant from a national perspective," he added. "What's critical is understanding the true nature of comfort women."
A Significant Victory
The Korean Council, now known as Justice for the Comfort Women, issued a statement harshly condemning the verdict. It argued that the ruling exonerated Lew's denial of the suffering endured by comfort women.
Its statement read, "With this ruling, the court squandered an opportunity to uphold the human rights of the victims and deliver legal justice... It is now clear that current laws are insufficient to stop the anti-human rights actions of far-right historical denialists."
Kim Byungheon, a historian who attended the trial on Thursday, described the ruling as largely fair and a significant victory for Lew and academic freedom.
Kim, however, expressed resentment over the Supreme Court's decision to uphold the partial guilty verdict. "The fact that the Korean Council instructed ex-comfort women is just as clear and substantiated by evidence as any of Lew's other remarks," he said.
While Lew's criminal trial has concluded, he still faces a pending civil suit from the same plaintiffs, the Korean Council, seeking compensatory damages.
RELATED:
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Author: Kenji Yoshida
