SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea\u2019s top court is due to rule on Tuesday on a damages lawsuit against a Japanese company filed by South Koreans forced into labour during Japan\u2019s 1910-45 occupation, a decision that could unsettle ties between the uneasy neighbours.<\/p>\n
Japan and South Korea share a bitter history that includes Japan\u2019s 35-year occupation of the peninsula and the use of comfort women, Japan\u2019s euphemism for women – many of them Korean – forced to work in its wartime brothels.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Four former labourers initiated a suit in 2005 against Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp., seeking compensation and unpaid wages.<\/p>\n
Previous cases they had brought in Japan were dismissed on the grounds that their right to reparation was terminated by a 1965 treaty normalising diplomatic ties.<\/p>\n
But in 2012, South Korea\u2019s Supreme Court ruled that the company should compensate the plaintiffs.<\/p>\n
The company has appealed a 2013 order that it pay 100 million won ($87,900) to each of the four.<\/p>\n
The Supreme Court is expected to uphold its 2012 ruling and that could bring repercussions for relations between the countries.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe might have to brace for not only a diplomatic crisis but a pull-out of some Japanese firms and a fall in new investment,\u201d said Shin Beom-chul, a senior fellow at Asan Institute for Policy Studies in Seoul.<\/p>\n
Japan\u2019s foreign ministry said the issue of compensation was \u201csettled completely and finally\u201d by the 1965 deal.<\/p>\n
A spokesman at Nippon Steel told Reuters: \u201cWe believe the court will rule in our favour.\u201d<\/p>\n
If the court upholds the order that the company pays compensation, the former labourers could request a seizure of Nippon Steel\u2019s property in South Korea, which could lead to an international arbitration, said Jin Chang-soo, president of the Sejong Institute think-tank.<\/p>\n
South Korea\u2019s foreign ministry said in 2016 any seizure of company assets could drive relations into an \u201cirreversible catastrophe\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s possible that the case will escalate, stoke anti-Japanese sentiment here and spill over into other areas including security at a time when we need to closely work with Japan to resolve the North Korean nuclear issue,\u201d Jin said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea\u2019s top court is due to rule on Tuesday on a damages lawsuit against a Japanese company filed by South Koreans forced into labour during Japan\u2019s 1910-45 occupation, a decision that could unsettle ties between the uneasy neighbours. Japan and South Korea share a bitter history that includes Japan\u2019s 35-year occupation of the peninsula and the… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":125,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/125"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2339"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2339\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2340,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2339\/revisions\/2340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}