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Supreme Court again orders Japanese company to compensate Korean forced labor victim


The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld another appellate court ruling that ordered a Japanese company to compensate the family of a late South Korean forced into wartime labor during Japan’s 1910-1945 colonial rule.

The top court handed down the decision on a damages suit filed by the victim’s family against Nippon Steel Corp. in 2015. The Supreme Court previously confirmed similar compensation orders for Nippon Steel and other Japanese companies in response to lawsuits launched in the early 2010s.

In the latest ruling approved by the Supreme Court, Nippon Steel was ordered to pay 100 million won (US$76,700) and compensation for delayed payment to three family members of the victim, who was forcibly taken to Japan in 1943 to work for a Nippon Steel steelworks without pay.

The victim, whose identity was withheld, died in 2012.

Source: Yonhap News Agency