The dispute between Japan and South Korea over Koreans mobilized for wartime labor in Japan has escalated yet again after a South Korean court approved the seizure of local assets of a leading Japanese steel-maker that had been ordered to pay damages to the former laborers — even though a 1965 bilateral agreement to settle property claims resolved the compensation issue. Seoul has rebuffed Tokyo's calls to resolve the case on the basis of the 1965 accord, saying that it respects the judiciary's decision, and President Moon Jae-in, in his new year's news conference this week, accused Japan of "politicizing" the issue and "making sources of controversy and spreading them."
The two governments have also remained at odds over the alleged radar lock-on incident that took place between the South Korean Navy and a Self-Defense Forces aircraft late last month. The situation is nothing less than a crisis in relations between Japan and South Korea, which, along with their mutual ally, the United States, need to be united in the effort to end North Korea's nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs. The crisis must not be left to fester. We urge Moon to make a rational decision to address the dispute and stop bilateral ties from spiraling further downward.
South Korea's Supreme Court in October ordered Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp. to pay damages to four Koreans mobilized to work for one of the steel-maker's predecessors during World War II — while Korea was under Japan's colonial rule from 1910 to 1945 — as it determined that individual South Koreans have not lost their right to seek damages for wartime labor. Japan protested that such a court decision runs counter to the 1965 agreement, which accompanied the basic treaty that normalized diplomatic ties between the two countries, and urged the South Korean government to take appropriate steps in line with the agreement. Seoul, however, has not done so. The top court has since handed down a similar ruling ordering Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. to compensate two groups of South Koreans for wartime labor, and more similar lawsuits targeting other Japanese companies are pending in South Korean courts.