Seoul court orders Japan to pay damages over wartime sexual slavery

Japan denounces ruling as unacceptable' as row over sexual enslavement of women in the second world war enters new chapter

Japan has denounced as utterly unacceptable" a South Korean court ruling ordering it to pay damages to women who were sexually enslaved by the Japanese military before and during the second world war.

The Seoul central district court on Friday said Japan was liable to compensate 12 women who forced to work as so-called comfort women", in a ruling that is expected to inflict further damage on the countries' already fraught ties.