On September 5, 117 Korean women known as “comfort women of American soldiers” filed a case in a local court for the sexual abuse they suffered at the hands of American troops. This is considered the country’s historical first case directly holding the US military accountable for the widespread prostitution linked to its military bases during the 1960s and 1970s.

Many women’s and human rights organizations support the case, including the Korean Council for Justice and Remembrance for the Issues of Military Sexual Slavery and Nodutdol for Korean Community Development.

In the 1960s and 1970s, thousands of American soldiers lived in US military bases in Dongducheon, South Korea after the Korean war ended. Around these bases, the Korean state established clusters of licensed bars, entertainment houses, and brothels called “gijichon” or “military camptowns.” Prostitution emerged in these camptowns managed by the state for American soldiers. The Korean government called the women there as “patriotic” and “civilian diplomats” for their role in the country’s economy and security. The women who filed the complaints said many of them were abducted and sold to pimps in the gijichon. Others were deceived and lured with promises of different jobs. To enslave them, pimps trapped or bound them in debt.

At a press conference on September 8, the women called the US military the “real culprits” of prostitution and demanded apology and indemnification. One form of abuse they described involved “treating” women infected with sexually transmitted disease by jailing in isolated prisons and “treated” them high doses of penicillin, which killed some women. The US military also knew that many of the women pimped to their soldiers were minors.

They said they continue to face severe discrimination in Korean society despite the so-called “patriotic service.” They were not afforded the same sympathy given to comfort women sexually abused by Japanese soldiers during the Second World War.

The women had already won a case in 2022 against the South Korean government for its role in promoting prostitution in US military bases. According to the court, the South Korean state encouraged the women to enter prostitution to earn dollars for the country and preserve its security alliance with the US. The Supreme Court ordered the government to indemnify the women for the trauma they endured as American soldiers’ “comfort women.” The first case was filed in 2014 by 122 women. By the time the verdict was issued, only 95 of them were still alive.