South Korean Supreme Court orders Nippon Steel to pay forced labor compensation

The Supreme Court of South Korea on Thursday upheld a lower court ruling ordering Japan's Nippon Steel Corp. to compensate the family of a deceased South Korean victim who was forced into labor during Japan's 1910-1945 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula, Yonhap News reported.

The court confirmed an appellate ruling that ordered Nippon Steel to pay 100 million won (around $67,900) in compensation to the family of the victim named Jeong Hyeong-pal. Jeong, who was taken to Japan and forced to work at a steel mill in Iwate Prefecture from 1940 to 1942, died years later.

It was the top court's first ruling on such cases since its landmark 2018 decision that held Japanese companies liable for the damages.

The latest verdict came after Jeong's four children filed a lawsuit in 2019 seeking 200 million won from the company. Nippon Steel had argued that the statute of limitations had expired, noting that most civil claims expire after 10 years.

According to Yonhap, the statute of limitations for most civil claims is 10 years, but exceptions apply in the event there are "objective reasons that make it impossible to resolve an incapacity."

A lower court had initially ruled against the family in 2021, but the appellate court reversed that decision last year. The appellate court ruled that the legal obstacles to such claims, which were removed by the Supreme Court's 2018 ruling, no longer applied, an interpretation that the Supreme Court has now upheld.

Since the 2018 ruling, South Korean courts have repeatedly ruled in favor of victims in similar cases.