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.
