South Korean wartime labor victims seize 4 patent rights of Mitsubishi

April 6, 2023

- Local court orders seizure on victims' plea despite government's plan to pay compensation through local foundation

By Islamuddin Sajid

ANKARA (AA) – A group of South Korean victims of Japan's wartime forced labor seized patent rights of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries after a local court’s order, local media reported late Wednesday.

A local court in Daejeon, in the central-west region of South Korea, recently ordered the seizure of four patent rights of Mitsubishi at the request of two surviving victims and the families of two other late forced labor victims, Yonhap News Agency reported.

The latest development came despite the South Korean government’s recent announcement to pay compensation to the victims through a local foundation to end a decades-long wartime labor dispute with Japan.

Currently, a total of 10 Korean-based patent rights and two trademark rights of Mitsubishi are under the seizure and debt collection process in connection with the forced mobilization of workers, according to the agency.

Last month, the South Korean government announced a proposal to pay compensation to the victims through the Foundation for Victims of Forced Mobilization, which is an affiliate of the country’s Interior Ministry.

In 2018, a South Korean court asked Japanese firms to pay compensation to victims of Japan's wartime forced labor.

Tokyo rejected the ruling, claiming that the issue was resolved in a postwar treaty signed by the two countries in 1965 when they established diplomatic relations.