A group of 117 South Korean women has filed a lawsuit against the United States military, accusing it of overseeing decades of sexual exploitation in state-sanctioned brothels that operated from the 1950s to the 1980s.
The women, many of them elderly, are seeking an official apology and 10 million won ($7,200) in compensation per victim. The case marks the first time the US military has been directly named in such a suit.
In 2022, South Korea’s top court ruled that the government had illegally “established, managed and operated” brothels for US troops, ordering it to compensate around 120 plaintiffs.
Historians say the economy surrounding military camp towns—including brothels, restaurants, barbershops, and bars serving American soldiers—accounted for nearly 25 percent of South Korea’s GDP in the 1960s and 70s.
One plaintiff, who was 17 when she was coerced into sex work, described enduring repeated beatings, sexual violence, and painful medical procedures. “Every night we were dragged to US soldiers and sexually abused. Every week, we were forced to undergo venereal disease tests. If there was the slightest abnormality, we were locked in a small room and injected with a thick needle of penicillin,” she recalled.
Women’s rights activists backing the lawsuit accused the US military of stripping the women of their freedom and destroying their lives.
Under South Korean law, the government is named as the defendant, since it is responsible for compensating victims of illegal acts committed by US soldiers on duty before seeking reimbursement from Washington.
“This lawsuit seeks to hold both the South Korean government and the US military authorities jointly liable for the unlawful acts,” lawyer Ha Ju-hee told AFP.
The United States Forces Korea (USFK), which still maintains about 28,500 troops in South Korea, acknowledged the reports but declined comment, citing ongoing legal proceedings. It said it does not condone behavior that violates South Korean law and remains committed to upholding discipline among its forces.
