TOKYO (Sputnik) – Tokyo has issued an official apology and pledged to pay an equivalent of $8.3 million to victims of sexual enslavement of Korean women during WWII as part of an agreement reached with Seoul on Monday.
"When a case is not suitable for mediation, [the court] decides not to mediate [and opens a trial]," the Yonhap news service quoted a court official as saying.
The Seoul district court has ruled to complete mediation procedures and launch hearings into a lawsuit filed by 12 South Korean women in 2013, two of whom have deceased.
The 10 remaining plaintiffs demand $85,000 each in damages.
Japan is unlikely to respond to the formal lawsuit after reaching the breakthrough deal with South Korea, according to the outlet.
Tokyo has requested to close the dispute permanently and dismantle a monument dedicated to the comfort women installed in front of the Japanese Embassy in exchange.
Up to 200,000 women, most of them Korean, are estimated to have been forced to work in brothels in service of imperial Japanese soldiers in wartime.
