Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal, the Japanese steel giant, would be willing to pay compensation to South Korean workers forced to work for the group during the Second World War, in conditions defined as slavery. Last month, the Seoul High Court ordered the group to pay a total of 400 million won (equivalent to US$360) to four victims seeking compensation for unpaid wages and mental suffering suffered during the latest conflict by the then Nippon Steel. The company, now called Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal following its merger with Sumitomo last year, has appealed. However, the world's largest steel group (after the Indian ArcelorMittal) would be willing, in the event of a new defeat, to proceed with compensation, according to rumors collected by the Sankei Shimbun not officially confirmed by the group. The High Court decision comes after a 16-year legal battle launched by four South Koreans, now aged between 80 and 90. The four had sued the group for damages in Japanese justice in 1997, and after the defeat on Japanese soil, they had started another proceeding in Korea in 2005.
The brutal Japanese colonization of the Korean peninsula between 1910 and 1945 drove 780 people into forced labor for Japanese industry, while thousands of women were forced into prostitution in brothels. A 1965 treaty signed by Seoul and Tokyo had fixed a remedial package of $800 million in subsidies and low-interest loans.
