"South Korea's top court orders a 3rd Japanese company to compensate workers for forced labor," 28 Dec 2023

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s top court on Thursday ordered a third Japanese company to compensate some of its former wartime Korean employees for forced labor, the second such ruling in a week.

[...] The Supreme Court ruled that shipbuilder Hitachi Zosen Corp. and heavy equipment manufacturer Mitsubishi Heavy Industries must give between 50 million won (about $39,000) and 150 million won (about $116,000) in compensation to each of the 17 Korean plaintiffs — one of whom is a surviving ex-worker and the rest bereaved relatives.

Mitsubishi and another Japanese company, Nippon Steel, were previously given a similar compensation order by the South Korean court, but it was the first such ruling for Hitachi.

[...] Hiroyuki Namazu, director-general for the Japanese Foreign Ministry’s Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, [...] maintained Japan's long-held position that all compensation issues between the two countries were settled when they normalized ties in 1965.

The South Korean rulings in 2018 and this month argued that the treaty can’t prevent individuals from seeking compensation for forced labor because Japanese companies’ use of such laborers were “acts of illegality against humanity” that were linked to Tokyo’s illegal colonial occupation and its war of aggression.

[...]