Forced Labor

[Anchor Lead]

South Korea's Supreme Court has ruled that a Japanese company that conscripted forced laborers from Korea under the Japanese colonial rule owes a compensation to the victims. The verdict comes 13 years after the lawsuit was first filed by the victims in 2005. The same ruling was issued in 2013 when the case was reversed and remanded. But it took more than five years to reach a final decision.

[Pkg]

[Soundbite] "​All the appeals are dismissed."

The final verdict was issued after 13 years… A South Korean court has recognized the legal liability of a Japanese company that committed wartime crimes against Koreans. The Supreme Court has ruled that Nippon Steel and Sumitomo Metal Corporation must pay one hundred million won to each of the plaintiffs. The Supreme Court said that the Claims Agreement signed by Korea and Japan in 1965 does not block the plaintiffs of their rights to claim compensation. The court said that the agreement was intended to solve issues concerning debtor-creditor relations between the two nations through political negotiations and does not include negotiations on compensation claims related to Japan's colonization of Korea in the past.

[Soundbite] Kim Myung-soo(Supreme Court Justice) : "The Japanese government rejected the compensation claims of the victims of forced labor without acknowledging the illegitimacy of colonial rule. As a result, the governments of South Korea and Japan have failed to reach an agreement on the nature of Japan's colonization of the Korean Peninsula."

Therefore, the South Korean Supreme Court has rejected the ruling issued by a Japanese court in 2003 in favor of the Japanese company. It said that the Japanese court's verdict was unacceptable, as it ran counter to the moral values and social order of Korea. It took 13 years to recognize the legal liability of the Japanese company for committing wartime crimes against Korean nationals. Three of the four plaintiffs have passed away before hearing the final verdict.