South Korea court orders Japan to compensate 'comfort women', reverses earlier ruling

FILE PHOTO: A bouquet lays alongside a statue commemorating Korean "comfort women" at a Sydney church in Sydney, Australia December 15, 2016, a 1.5-metre statue imported from Korea which has been a flashpoint for tensions between Korean and Japanese communities in Sydney since it was unveiled in August. REUTERS/Jason Reed/File Photo

SEOUL (Reuters) -A South Korean appellate court on Thursday ordered Japan to compensate a group of 16 women who were forced to work in Japanese wartime brothels, overturning a lower court ruling that dismissed the case and prompting a stern protest from Tokyo.

The legacy of Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean peninsula remains politically sensitive for both sides, with many surviving "comfort women" - a Japanese euphemism for the sex abuse victims - still demanding Tokyo's formal apology and compensation.