S. Korea orders another Japanese firm to compensate forced laborers
- 5 years ago
日후지코시 근로정신대 피해 2심도 승소…"일본이 기망•협박"
Since last year South Korean courts have ordered several Japanese companies to compensate Koreans forced to work for them at factories during World War Two.
One ruling came out just last week.
Today, there was one more... against a different Japanese manufacturer,... Nachi-Fujikoshi Corporation, which will also have to pay the victims.
Choi Si-young gets us up to speed with the developments.
On Friday, the Seoul High Court upheld a ruling by a lower court ordering Japanese manufacturer Nachi-Fujikoshi Corporation to pay up to about ninety-thousand U.S. dollars to each victim.
The victims were tricked into joining the Korean Women's Volunteer Labor Corps and were told they would be able to study in Japan and be taken good care of.
But they were forced to work at a munitions factory for no pay.
Similar to other recent rulings, the high court dismissed the firm's contention that all claims are "settled completely and finally" by the 1965 agreement between Seoul and Tokyo that restored their diplomatic ties.
That agreement, it said, did not terminate the right of individual victims to file independent damage suits, as declared by South Korea's Supreme Court last year.
The high court noted that while the victims did lose a compensation suit against the firm in Japan, that ruling by the Japanese court is not binding on the South Korean court.
The high court also said that it is against the principle of good faith that the Japanese company would deny the victim compensation just because the statute of limitations had run out.
The court defended the compensation amount as appropriate,... considering the company's level of deception and coercion and the fact these victims spent almost 70 years uncompensated.
Choi Si-young, Arirang News.
Since last year South Korean courts have ordered several Japanese companies to compensate Koreans forced to work for them at factories during World War Two.
One ruling came out just last week.
Today, there was one more... against a different Japanese manufacturer,... Nachi-Fujikoshi Corporation, which will also have to pay the victims.
Choi Si-young gets us up to speed with the developments.
On Friday, the Seoul High Court upheld a ruling by a lower court ordering Japanese manufacturer Nachi-Fujikoshi Corporation to pay up to about ninety-thousand U.S. dollars to each victim.
The victims were tricked into joining the Korean Women's Volunteer Labor Corps and were told they would be able to study in Japan and be taken good care of.
But they were forced to work at a munitions factory for no pay.
Similar to other recent rulings, the high court dismissed the firm's contention that all claims are "settled completely and finally" by the 1965 agreement between Seoul and Tokyo that restored their diplomatic ties.
That agreement, it said, did not terminate the right of individual victims to file independent damage suits, as declared by South Korea's Supreme Court last year.
The high court noted that while the victims did lose a compensation suit against the firm in Japan, that ruling by the Japanese court is not binding on the South Korean court.
The high court also said that it is against the principle of good faith that the Japanese company would deny the victim compensation just because the statute of limitations had run out.
The court defended the compensation amount as appropriate,... considering the company's level of deception and coercion and the fact these victims spent almost 70 years uncompensated.
Choi Si-young, Arirang News.