S. Korean court upholds compensation for Japanese forced labor
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) – South Korea’s highest court upheld on Thursday rulings by lower courts that ordered two Japanese companies to compensate South Korean victims of wartime forced labor.
Relations between the two US allies have long been testy due to bitter memories of Japan’s brutal occupation of the Korean peninsula from 1910 to 1945.
However, ties have been improving as the conservative government of President Yoon Suk Yeol has sought to bury the historical hatchet and confront growing military threats from North Korea jointly with Japan.
Around 780,000 Koreans were conscripted into forced wartime labor by Japan, according to data from Seoul, not including women forced into sexual slavery by Japanese troops.
South Korea’s Supreme Court upheld two lower court rulings, which issued compensation orders against Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Nippon Steel, dismissing appeals by the companies.
“The decision of the lower court(s) was accepted and the appeal was dismissed,” it said in a statement.
Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said Tokyo had lodged a protest over the court’s ruling.
“It’s extremely regrettable and unacceptable,” he told reporters.
However, Hayashi also said that the government in Seoul had announced in March that any plaintiffs who won such compensation claims would be paid out of a South Korea-backed fund rather than by the Japanese companies.
Mitsubishi was ordered to compensate three South Korean victims with amounts ranging from 100 million-150 million won ($76,700$115,000), while Nippon Steel was ordered to provide 100 million won each to seven victims.
Israel has ordered more evacuations in southern Gaza’s main city as diplomats pressed on with efforts to secure a pause in the war that Hamas says has claimed 20,000 lives.
The United Nations said Israel had issued evacuation orders on Wednesday for large areas of Khan Yunis, where more than 140,000 displaced people were sheltering.
Israel told civilians to leave the north of the besieged Palestinian territory at the beginning of the conflict, urging them to seek safety in southern areas.
But as places for people to go continued to shrink, international outrage has mounted over the rising death toll.
The war began when Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, killing around 1,140 people, mostly civilians, and abducting about 250, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.
The Hamas government’s media office in the Gaza Strip said Wednesday at least 20,000 people had been killed in the Palestinian territory since the war with Israel began.
It said 8,000 children and 6,200 women were among the dead.
UN relief chief Martin Griffiths deemed it a “tragic and shameful milestone”.
In the southern city of Rafah, where fireballs and smoke rose after explosions on Wednesday, residents expressed hope that truce talks would succeed.
“I wish for a complete ceasefire, and to put an end to the series of death and suffering. It’s been more than 75 days,” said Kassem Shurrab, 25.
Truce talks
Hopes that Israel and Hamas could be inching towards another truce and hostage release deal have risen this week as the head of the Palestinian militant group visited
Egypt and talks were held in Europe.
Qatar-based Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh arrived in Egypt on Wednesday for talks with the country’s intelligence chief Abbas Kamel.
Haniyeh also met Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-abdollahian but no details were released.
A Hamas official told AFP that “a total ceasefire and a retreat of the Israeli occupation army from the Gaza Strip are a precondition for any serious negotiation” on a hostage-prisoner swap.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said there could be no ceasefire in Gaza before the “elimination” of Hamas.
And US President Joe Biden said of a fresh hostage release deal: “There’s no expectation at this point. But we are pushing it.”
Mossad director David Barnea held a “positive meeting” in Warsaw this week with CIA chief Bill Burns and Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, a source familiar with the talks told AFP.
Qatar, backed by Egypt and the United States, last month helped broker a first week-long truce that saw 80 Israeli hostages freed in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners.
The UN Security Council was due to try once again Thursday to pass a resolution calling for a halt in fighting after previous efforts to win Washington’s backing fell short.
Israel has rejected the term “ceasefire,” and the US has used its veto twice to thwart resolutions opposed by Israel since the start of the war.
The United Arab Emirates is sponsoring a draft resolution on the conflict which has already been watered down to secure compromise, according to a draft version seen by AFP.
It calls for “the urgent suspension of hostilities to allow safe and unhindered humanitarian access, and for urgent steps towards a sustainable cessation of hostilities.” (AFP)