The appellate division of the Seoul Central District Court ordered on Thursday that the Japanese corporation Nippon Steel pay 100 million won to the four children of a Korean citizen who was a victim of forced labor in Japan during the Second World War, local media reported.
The Seoul court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, descendants of a South Korean national who was forcibly mobilized to work in the Nippon Steel mill between 1940 and 1942. Initially, the plaintiffs demanded 200 million won, but the court denied this as the right to claim compensation had expired. However, Thursday’s decision marked a reversal of the previous ruling, granting a settlement of 100 million won.
South Korea was a Japanese colony from 1910 to 1945. During the Second World War, Japan forcibly conscripted hundreds of thousands of South Korean nationals into labor in factories and mines to bolster its wartime economy.
In 1965, South Korea and Japan signed a treaty that normalized diplomatic relations and included Japan providing $500 million in economic aid to South Korea. Japanese authorities have argued that this treaty resolved all compensation claims once and for all.
Despite this, South Korean survivors and their families have continued seeking damages for their suffering and forced labor. Notably, in 2018, South Korea’s supreme court upheld a lower court ruling ordering Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to compensate South Koreans forced into labor during World War II. In 2023, another verdict from South Korea’s supreme court further affirmed that two Japanese companies, Hitachi Zosen Corporation and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, owe 200 million won as compensation to a former South Korean worker and the families of 16 other former laborers.
The recent ruling against Nippon Steel is a continuation of the legal battles surrounding historical grievances between South Korea and Japan. For further details, the complete text of the primary report can be found here.