SEOUL Japan? High Court of Justice on Nov. 30 turned down a former Korean comfort woman? appeal against the Japanese government, in which she demanded 12 million yen ($108,600) in damages and an official apology.

A native of Chungchong-namdo in Korea, Song Shin-do, 78, said in a written accusation that in 1938 when she was only 16 years old, she was taken to the Japanese army base in China and was forced to serve as a sex slave for the Japanese army for seven years.

She also asserted that she has suffered from several medical complications such as impaired hearing as a result of beatings by Japanese soldiers and being pricked by their bayonets.

The court explained the reason of dismissing the appeal by stating: "The damages Song had suffered are admitted but according to international law, an individual doesn? have any right to directly ask the offending country for compensation. Also, the claiming of war damages by Koreans residing in Japan to the Japanese government terminated in 1985, 20 years after the Korea-Japan Claim Treaty in 1965.

Over seven lawsuits filed by comfort women against the Japanese government are still pending in Japanese courts. Song is the first former comfort woman residing in Japan to reveal her gloomy past in public and to file a lawsuit against the government.

The woman, who now lives in Miyaki Prefecture, filed the lawsuit against the government in April of 1993. Her lawsuit was based on international law, which bans slavery, and some treaties of the International Labor Organization (ILO) related to forced labor.

"Comfort women" is a euphemism for the sex slaves who were forced to serve Japanese soldiers at military camps during World War II. There were an estimated 300,000 comfort women.