Seoul, Aug. 19, (dpa/GNA) – A court in South Korea has ordered that Mitsubishi Heavy Industries’ assets in the country be seized in order to pay compensation to Koreans who were forced to work for the company during Japan’s colonial occupation of Korea.
According to the order, issued by a branch of the Suwon District Court, 850 million won (about 723,000 dollars) will be seized to compensate four Korean victims of forced labour or their survivors, South Korean broadcasters reported on Thursday.
During Japan’s colonial rule over Korea (1910-45) and particularly during World War II, Japanese companies are estimated to have forced hundreds of thousands of Koreans to work without pay in harsh and dangerous conditions.
The assets to be seized are reportedly equal in value to Mitsubishi’s outstanding debt to the South Korean company LS M-tron. The money will go to the plaintiffs. The amount is made up of damages already awarded and years of interest on the unpaid compensation.
Japanese government spokesperson Katsunobu Kato warned that the “liquidation of assets” would put extreme strain on bilateral relations, according Kyodo news agency reports.
Kato reiterated Tokyo’s position that the issue of compensation was settled once and for all by the 1965 Normalization Treaty, under which Japan paid South Korea compensation for its colonial occupation and re-established diplomatic relations between the two countries.
The issue of compensation for forced labourers has strained relations for many years. The dispute intensified after South Korea’s Supreme Court in 2018 ordered Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Nippon Steel to pay compensation for pain and suffering and unpaid wages.
GNA