South Korean Women File Historic Lawsuit Targeting the U.S. Military for Sex Trafficking, Abuse, and Human Rights Violations
October 14, 2025
Posted in: Media • News • Political Education
For the first time in history, a group of Korean women have filed a lawsuit aimed at holding the U.S. military accountable for gender-based human rights abuses. The 117 plaintiffs filed a lawsuit on September 8, 2025, seeking a formal apology from the U.S. military and financial compensation for the sex trafficking, sexual abuse, and human rights violations suffered at the hands of U.S. soldiers at military base camptowns. The lawsuit intends to hold the U.S. military accountable for its role in perpetuating exploitative prostitution economies and practices on and around U.S. military bases, namely various human rights abuses against Korean women at:
* Bars and brothels catering to U.S. military personnel
* Medical detention centers colloquially known as “monkey houses,” where women would be detained and forcibly treated for STDs
WCDMZ visited one of the last-known standing “monkey house” sites in Dongducheon in May. We met with grassroots activists staging an encampment for over 400 days protesting the center’s proposed demolition and organizing for preservation as a learning site. We were honored to visit and learn from these activists in active struggle.
From Dongducheon to the South Korean Supreme Court, the fight for justice and to illuminate the truth of history requires ending U.S. military impunity and the Korean War altogether. The women leading this lawsuit, whose lives were most impacted by this system of militarized sexual violence, boldly reframe how we understand this history altogether: that their experiences are not ones of shame, but ones of ongoing resistance to the most powerful military in the world.