Japan denounced the verdict against Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp. as “unthinkable,” expressing hope cooperation over North Korea would not be jeopardized.
South Korea’s top court ruled Tuesday that a Japanese steel producer must compensate South Koreans for their forced labor during World War II.
Japan denounced the verdict against Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp. as “unthinkable,” while expressing hope that cooperation over North Korea would not be jeopardized.
The landmark ruling saw South Korea’s Supreme Court uphold a 2013 order for the company to pay 100 million won ($87,700) to each of the four steel workers who initiated the suit in 2005.
Lee Choon-shik, 94, is the sole surviving plaintiff. He welcomed the ruling, but told a televised news conference that it was “heartbreaking to see it today, left alone alive.”
The two countries share a bitter history, including Japan’s 1910-45 colonization of the Korean peninsula and the use of “comfort women,” Japan’s euphemism for girls and women, many of them Korean, forced to work in its wartime brothels.
The ruling prompted a swift and angry reaction from Tokyo.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told parliament the matter had been “completely and finally” settled by a 1965 treaty normalizing relations between his country and South Korea, something rejected by the court.
