Former Professor Ryu Seok-chun, Accused of Defamation Over 'Comfort Women' Controversial Remarks

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Donghoon Jeong] Ryu Seok-chun (65), a former Yonsei University professor who sparked controversy by referring to Japanese military comfort women as "a type of prostitution" during a lecture, has been indicted on charges of defamation.

The Criminal Division 1 of the Seoul Western District Prosecutors' Office (Chief Prosecutor Park Hyun-chul) announced on the 29th that former professor Ryu was indicted without detention on defamation charges. However, the charge of insult against the Korean Council for Justice and Remembrance for the Issues of Military Sexual Slavery by Japan (Jeongdaehyeop), the predecessor of the Justice and Memory Foundation (Jeonguiyeon), was dismissed due to lack of evidence.

Former professor Ryu is accused of damaging the honor of comfort women victims by stating during a Development Sociology lecture in the Sociology Department at Yonsei University on September 19 last year that "the grandmothers who were victims of the Japanese military comfort women system voluntarily became comfort women to engage in prostitution."

Previously, the Justice and Memory Foundation, a support organization for comfort women victims, along with the Citizens' Committee for the Protection of the Common People, filed complaints and accusations against former professor Ryu, claiming that he distorted history and made statements that defamed the victims' honor.

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