Top court dismisses Mitsubishi Heavy's 2nd appeal against wartime labor compensation

The Supreme Court has dismissed a second appeal filed by Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries against an order to sell patent rights the company has in South Korea to compensate a victim of wartime forced labor, according to legal sources Tuesday.

The top court dismissed Mitsubishi Heavy's appeal against the forced sale of two patents to compensate Park Hae-ok, a female victim of forced labor during Tokyo's 1910-45 colonization of the Korean Peninsula, on Dec. 27, the sources said.

In 2018, the Supreme Court ordered Mitsubishi to compensate forced labor victims, but the company refused to comply, saying the reparation issue was fully and finally settled by a treaty signed between the two nations in 1965 to normalize ties.

The victims later asked a court to seize the company's assets in South Korea, and the court accepted their request in March 2019.

The Japanese firm appealed that decision, but the case was dismissed by the Supreme Court in September 2021.

Two other Mitsubishi Heavy cases involving other victims were previously confirmed in favor of the victims. Another case remains pending in a lower court in Daejeon, 160 kilometers south of Seoul. (Yonhap)