Court refuses to deposit compensation for forced labor victim

The Gwangju District Court [YONHAP]

A court in Gwangju dismissed the request from the Foreign Ministry to deposit the compensation money for victims of wartime Japanese forced labor on Tuesday.

The ministry had earlier on Monday requested local courts to deposit the third-party compensation, mostly from Korean corporate donations, for some of the victims who sued the Japanese companies for compensation for their forced labor during the 1910–45 Japanese annexation of Korea.

There were 15 plaintiffs — a mix of surviving victims and their relatives — who sued the Japanese companies Nippon Steel and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.

As of late May, 11 of them had received the third-party compensation arranged by the Korean government.

As the remaining four continued to refuse to be compensated by a third party, the ministry said Monday it was depositing them to local courts so that the victims and their relatives can choose to withdraw them as they like if they change their minds.

Two of these concerned forced labor survivors Yang Geum-deok and Lee Chun-sik. Both requests were made to the court in Gwangju.

The court dismissed the request on Yang's compensation money, reportedly citing Yang's rejection of the third-party compensation solution.

It returned the request on Lee, citing incomplete request filing.

The ministry protested the Gwangju court's decision on Tuesday.

"The government expresses strong regrets to the Gwangju court's decision," the ministry said in a statement. "It is not for a court official to decide at this point whether to dismiss the deposit request. Whether the deposit can be a valid third-party compensation is a matter to be determined in a future court process."

The ministry said it will take action to challenge the court's decision.

The ministry has denied reports that its action to deposit the compensation money would in any way cancel the plaintiffs' suits against Japanese companies.

"Based on the legal consultations we've received, the action of depositing the compensation money does not in itself lead to an expiration of the plaintiffs' rights in their ongoing suits," a Foreign Ministry official told the press in Seoul on Tuesday.

BY ESTHER CHUNG [chung.juhee@joongang.co.kr]