Court notices take effect on sell-off of Japanese firm assets to compensate wartime forced laborers

Public notices of a local court took effect Tuesday to move forward a legal process to sell off local assets of a Japanese firm to compensate victims of Japan's wartime forced labor, in a procedure likely to raise diplomatic tensions between Seoul and Tokyo.

The public notification to Mitsubishi Heavy Industries went into force at the start of Tuesday, as the company failed to carry out a 2018 order by the Supreme Court to compensate five plaintiffs, including a 91-year-old victim, with no diplomatic solution in sight.

The notification by the district court in the country's central city of Daejeon is a procedure employed when a defendant refuses to receive court documents necessary for trial proceedings despite the need to move the pending case forward.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries reportedly plans to appeal the case in a move likely to stall the compensation process and set the stage for another round of a legal battle, which could further strain already taut relations between the two countries.

The two public notices that took effect Tuesday are among the four notices related to the court order to seize and sell off the Korea-based assets of the Japanese firm. The other notices are set to go into force on Wednesday.

Without any legal move by the company, the effectuation of the notices would spur progress in the process to sell off its assets, which involves a set of time-consuming procedures such as the evaluation and auction of the assets.

The public notification was based on the 2018 Supreme Court ruling that ordered the company to give 100-150 million won ($91,116-136,674) to each of the plaintiffs related to the forced labor during Japan's 1910-45 colonization of the Korean Peninsula.

The Tokyo government, however, disputed the ruling, arguing that all reparation issues, stemming from its colonial rule, were settled by a 1965 treaty that normalized relations between the two countries.

Experts have warned that the sell-off of the Japanese company's assets would deal a serious blow to relations between the two countries, as Seoul eyes closer cooperation with Tokyo to make progress in its drive for peace with Pyongyang.

The prospects of renewed tensions between Seoul and Tokyo also came as the two countries feel the need to patch things up ahead of next month's launch of the administration of Joe Biden, who has stressed tighter-knit cooperation among US allies to shore up America's global leadership. (Yonhap)