Seoul court approves seizure of Japanese firm's funds over wartime labor

This is a test for President Yoon in supposedly wishing for some sort of relationship with Japan.

If he - rightly - overturns this political decision by corrupt, anti-Japan judges appointed by the previous regime, we will know Pres. Yoon sincere.

37,400? Give them the money. It's less per year than a construction worker gets.

I think this matter has been settled.

If SK starts liquidating the Japanese shipbuilder’s assets in Korea, Japan should take retaliatory measures by seizing Korean assets under its jurisdiction. Go ahead Korea,, you’ve made yourself an international pariah.

If someone was forced into slavery (which they were, right ? ) and never got anything for their work / confinement, then I am all for this, but if the decades old “Settlement” went into the corrupt government pockets at the time, then these people need to be paid somehow, because clearly the South Korean government can’t be trusted

@Fighto!

This is a test for President Yoon

There is no test since there is nothing Yoon can do about it due to Korea's clear separation of power. The court has repeatedly ruled FIVE TIMES the forced laborer's right to be compensated by liquidating the Japanese defendant's assets cannot be infringed by anyone. Korea isn't like Japan. Korea has a strong and clear separation of power and a very strong civil society.

@Gene Hennigh

Give them the money. It's less per year than a construction worker gets.

Japanese companies wanted to settle, but was prevented from doing so by Abe/Kishida. They said so in court filings.

It's far cheaper to just settle than to drag it out in court for years and pay huge legal fees. While human rights lawyers working for the forced laborers work for free, law firms defending Japanese defendants and Yoon's foundation do not.

@Meiyouwenti

Japan should take retaliatory measures by seizing Korean assets under its jurisdiction. 

No can do. You need Japanese plaintiffs criminally wronged by Korean companies to seize assets under Japanese law, but such plaintiffs do not exist.

What Japanese here do not understand is that Yoon's "solution" was never legally binding. If the plaintiffs refused Yoon's "solution", then that's that and their right to seize and liquidate Japanese defendant's assets cannot be infringed by anyone, such protection is explicitly written in Korea's civil law and was upheld in court five times citing this explicit spelled out protection provision in the civil law.

Yoon's foundation thought otherwise based on a bad legal advice from a law firm that was defending Mitsubishi and spent $400,000 trying to prove that Yoon's "solution" can be forced, but the courts said no. Yoon's foundation has since replaced the law firm with a more reputable one, but they have run out of legal funds and has SOSed the foreign ministry for emergency legal funding. Supposedly the foreign ministry can fund the legal bills but not the compensation money.

But what's worse is that the foreign ministry cannot fund the compensation money, and no Korean corporation has given a dime to Yoon's fund because of the threats from the Democratic party, which threatened to go after any corporation that gave a dime to Yoon's fund when they take back the presidency and the Korean corporations fear the Democratic party and Lee Jae Myong more than Yoon right now because it's obvious Yoon's going to be impeached soon.

So Yoon's fund has run out of money and can't even compensate forced laborers even if they asked for it. The only available assets is the seized Japanese assets.

K-losers..

Is 37000 worth the bad publicity? Just pay it.

Move on already

Opening a can of worms...

No can do. You need Japanese plaintiffs criminally wronged by Korean companies to seize assets under Japanese law, but such plaintiffs do not exist.

Really? Japanese companies that had their assets sized seized will be the plaintiffs.

So Yoon's fund has run out of money and can't even compensate forced laborers even if they asked for it.

and

 no Korean corporation has given a dime to Yoon's fund 

Really?

Please explain:

Most Korean plaintiffs in wartime labor case accept damages from fund

https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2023/04/1cf893d34e32-most-korean-plaintiffs-in-wartime-labor-case-accept-damages-from-fund.html

Japanese companies wanted to settle, but was prevented from doing so by Abe/Kishida. They said so in court filings.

Source and link Please.

Korea isn't like Japan. Korea has a strong and clear separation of power and a very strong civil society.

Korea is not a nation of laws it is nation of people. The Korean courts are joke.

Judicialization of Politics and the Korean Constitutional Court: 

https://www.jstor.org/stable/43239741

A Japanese company in a Korean court has no chance.

37,400? Give them the money.

Ok, you give it to them. Japan has already paid. Japanese companies are being asked to pay again. Read the treaty.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_on_Basic_Relations_Between_Japan_and_the_Republic_of_Korea#Settlements

For the record:

 

In January 2005, the South Korean government disclosed 1,200 pages of diplomatic documents that recorded the proceeding of the treaty.

 

 The documents, kept secret for 40 years, recorded that the Japanese government actually proposed to the South Korean government to directly compensate individual victims but it was the South Korean government which insisted that it would handle individual compensation to its citizens and then received the whole amount of grants on behalf of the victims.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_on_Basic_Relations_Between_Japan_and_the_Republic_of_Korea#Reparations

 

 

 

Please explain the above Samit Basu and others

Good for them! Stand your ground.

@KoolKoi

Really? Please explain:

https://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/english_editorials/1121524

Posted on : 2023-12-22 17:45 KST Modified on : 2023-12-22 17:45 KST

When the government announced its third-party compensation plan, it pledged to set up a private-sector fund with donations from various companies, but so far the only participating company is POSCO, which was a beneficiary of economic cooperation funds provided by Japan after it normalized relations with Korea.

Unless the fund is expanded, the government may find itself in the absurd position of not even being able to carry out its third-party compensation plan. 

POSCO contributed $4 million years ago before Yoon's plan. Since then no Korean corporation contributed(due to the fear of the Democratic party's threats), some $80,000 were raised by contributions from the US Chamber of Commerce, a couple of wealthy individuals, and that's it.

Like the article says, there is not enough money left in the fund to even pay forced laborers.

Yoon's biggest mistake was having too much faith in Japan, that Japan was interested in resolving the issue and match the Korean contribution.

Source and link Please.

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2018/11/12/national/south-korean-lawyers-representing-forced-laborers-rebuffed-nippon-steel-tokyo/

The Japanese government has called on Nippon Steel not to comply with the South Korean ruling.

http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2018-11/12/c_137601697.htm

The Japanese government, for its part, has told Nippon Steel not to comply with the South Korean top court's ruling.

Read the treaty.

Indeed, nowhere in the treaty text the word "damages" is found. In other word, damages are not covered by the 1965 treaty.

For those not understanding why ZERO Korean corporations contributed to Yoon's compensation fund, this is due to their fear of the opposition Democratic party and their history of prosecuting and throwing big business CEOs like Samsung CEO Lee Jae Yong and Lotte CEO Shin Dong Bin in prison when they take back power.

Samsung CEO and Lotte CEO contributed to President Park's puppet master run sports charity funds after being blackmailed.

When the Democratic party took back presidency(aka President Moon), they went after all big business CEOs who contributed to such special purpose funds and threw them in prison.

So after seeing Samsung and Lotte's billionaire CEOs thrown in prison, who has the balls to defy the Democratic party's warnings and contribute to Yoon's fund? ZERO. So the fund has no money to compensate the forced laborers who wants to be compensated, and Yoon's plan fails. Case closed.

So long South Josen. You will not be missed.

The Japanese government can now cut all ties with South Josen and freeze all assets within Japan owned by South Josen companies until South Josen government sits down with an arbitrator and clear out what had been agreed and rectifiy the problem based on the 1965 Treaty.

No the South Josen jurdicial system does not trump international treaties and neither the South Josen legistrative or administrative branch can't wash their hands blaming it on the judicial branch. The treaty was signed by two nations and not any single branch of a government.

Nachi-Fujikoshi has been added to the list of Japanese companies ordered to pay damages to forced laborers by Korea's supreme court.

https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2024/01/ad8b438db80d-update1-s-koreas-top-court-upholds-wartime-labor-rulings-against-japan-firm.html

South Korea's top court upholds wartime labor rulings against Japan firm

KYODO NEWS KYODO NEWS - 2 hours ago - 12:40 | World, All, Japan

South Korea's Supreme Court on Thursday rejected appeals by Japanese machinery maker Nachi-Fujikoshi Corp. and upheld decisions by lower courts ordering the company to pay damages to South Koreans for wartime labor.

The very fact that this artical is in the political section on JT , suggests that Japan regards this matter as a political issue. It is actually a legal issue under Korean jurisdiction.

Alan HarrisonToday  08:47 pm JST

The very fact that this artical is in the political section on JT , suggests that Japan regards this matter as a political issue. It is actually a legal issue under Korean jurisdiction.

Incorrect. The JT editorial dept are the ones who put it under the political section.

Furthrmore, JT is correct because it is political as SK Court's ruling contradicts the 1965 Treaty between SK and JPN.

I think it is a very good thing for Japan that even though South Korea has a new president, it has been confirmed that it is still anti-Japanese, and that it has been exposed as a country that cannot be trusted. Cooperation with the United States and Taiwan is necessary, but South Korea should be dismissed as a red team.

This issue was originally resolved in the Treaty on Basic Relations between Japan and Korea in 1965.

The South Korean government at the time promised that South Korea would handle the damage, including that of North Koreans, and was able to obtain an amount from Japan that was three times the amount of South Korea's national budget at the time.

In this way, it was decided that the right of workers to claim unpaid wages would be transferred to the South Korean government, and that if the workers sued, the South Korean government would pay. And successive Korean governments have continued to pay money to such people over and over again.

It would be unthinkable for a sane developed country to now have the South Korean judiciary decided by the National Assembly, the legislative branch, that the contents of the treaty issued are unconstitutional. As expected, this is an event typical of South Korea, which still has a retroactive pro-Japan law.

Koreans seem to mistakenly believe that this is a proper separation of powers, but unfortunately it is far from being the mainstream in the world.

Noone1Jan. 25  08:42 am JST

Is 37000 worth the bad publicity? Just pay it.

That's how extortion works.