Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, a Japanese war criminal company that was ruled by South Korea's Supreme Court to pay compensation to victims of forced labor, rejected the victim's demand three times in a row to discuss ways to implement the ruling.
According to a civic group on July 16, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries did not respond until the last day to the request, which the victims said they wanted a comprehensive solution to the issue through consultation.
"Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, which eventually lost the long-running lawsuit, hid behind the Japanese government and ignored our demands," the civic group said.
In particular, it stressed that the process set by the law cannot be delayed any longer, fearing that the victims, including the 89-year-old woman, who died of old age the previous day after participating in additional lawsuits, are in poor health.
"We have called for more than half a year since the ruling was finalized, and we have delayed the execution, but eventually, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries did not express any minimum regret," they said. "We will request an order to sell the assets of Mitsubishi as soon as possible."
In November last year, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs in both of the two previous cases, ordering Mitsubishi to pay between 100 million won and 150 million won in compensation per person to five victims of conscription, including a grandmother, Yang.
Since then, the victims of forced labor have seized two trademark and six patent rights in South Korea owned by Mitsubishi after the Japanese company refused to implement the ruling.
Before the process of selling the seized assets, they demanded consultations with Mitsubishi on three occasions.