The Korea Times
amn_close.png
amn_bl.png
National
  • Politics
  • Foreign Affairs
  • Multicultural Community
  • Defense
  • Environment & Animals
  • Law & Crime
  • Society
  • Health & Science
amn_bl.png
Business
  • Tech
  • Bio
  • Companies
  • World Expo 2030
amn_bl.png
Finance
  • Companies
  • Economy
  • Markets
  • Cryptocurrency
amn_bl.png
Opinion
  • Editorial
  • Columns
  • Thoughts of the Times
  • Cartoon
  • Today in History
  • Blogs
  • Tribune Service
  • Blondie & Garfield
  • Letter to President
  • Letter to the Editor
amn_bl.png
Lifestyle
  • Travel & Food
  • Trends
  • People & Events
  • Books
  • Around Town
  • Fortune Telling
amn_bl.png
Entertainment & Arts
  • K-pop
  • Films
  • Shows & Dramas
  • Music
  • Theater & Others
amn_bl.png
Sports
amn_bl.png
World
  • SCMP
  • Asia
amn_bl.png
Video
  • Korean Storytellers
  • POPKORN
  • Culture
  • People
  • News
amn_bl.png
Photos
  • Photo News
  • Darkroom
amn_NK.png amn_DR.png amn_LK.png amn_LE.png
  • bt_fb_on_2022.svgbt_fb_over_2022.svg
  • bt_twitter_on_2022.svgbt_twitter_over_2022.svg
  • bt_youtube_on_2022.svgbt_youtube_over_2022.svg
  • bt_instagram_on_2022.svgbt_instagram_over_2022.svg
The Korea Times
amn_close.png
amn_bl.png
National
  • Politics
  • Foreign Affairs
  • Multicultural Community
  • Defense
  • Environment & Animals
  • Law & Crime
  • Society
  • Health & Science
amn_bl.png
Business
  • Tech
  • Bio
  • Companies
  • World Expo 2030
amn_bl.png
Finance
  • Companies
  • Economy
  • Markets
  • Cryptocurrency
amn_bl.png
Opinion
  • Editorial
  • Columns
  • Thoughts of the Times
  • Cartoon
  • Today in History
  • Blogs
  • Tribune Service
  • Blondie & Garfield
  • Letter to President
  • Letter to the Editor
amn_bl.png
Lifestyle
  • Travel & Food
  • Trends
  • People & Events
  • Books
  • Around Town
  • Fortune Telling
amn_bl.png
Entertainment & Arts
  • K-pop
  • Films
  • Shows & Dramas
  • Music
  • Theater & Others
amn_bl.png
Sports
amn_bl.png
World
  • SCMP
  • Asia
amn_bl.png
Video
  • Korean Storytellers
  • POPKORN
  • Culture
  • People
  • News
amn_bl.png
Photos
  • Photo News
  • Darkroom
amn_NK.png amn_DR.png amn_LK.png amn_LE.png
  • bt_fb_on_2022.svgbt_fb_over_2022.svg
  • bt_twitter_on_2022.svgbt_twitter_over_2022.svg
  • bt_youtube_on_2022.svgbt_youtube_over_2022.svg
  • bt_instagram_on_2022.svgbt_instagram_over_2022.svg
  • Login
  • Register
  • Login
  • Register
  • The Korea Times
  • search
  • all menu
  • Login
  • Subscribe
  • Photos
  • Video
  • World
  • Sports
  • Opinion
  • Entertainment & Art
  • Lifestyle
  • Finance
  • Business
  • National
  • North Korea
  • 1

    Hybe's new boy group Boynextdoor aims to be 'one and only' presence in K-pop

  • 3

    Seoul city erroneously sends emergency alert after NK launch

  • 5

    ENHYPEN reaches new career high with latest album 'Dark Blood'

  • 7

    NK's attempt to launch 1st spy satellite fails after 'abnormal' flight: S. Korean military

  • 9

    Memorial Day 2023

  • 11

    Vietnam emerges as major market for Korean chipmakers

  • 13

    Japanese destroyer flies controversial flag as it arrives in Korea for joint drill

  • 15

    ANALYSISChina's ban on Micron tests Washington-Seoul alliance

  • 17

    Top 20% of income earners fuel increase in Q1 consumption as pandemic ends

  • 19

    Running convenience stores becomes popular among people in 20s, 30s

  • 2

    SHINee celebrates 15th anniversary of debut: 'It feels surreal'

  • 4

    Seoul on alert over Pyongyang's imminent spy satellite launch

  • 6

    Brave Girls to restart activities under new name

  • 8

    Korea's household debt-to-GDP ratio highest among 34 major economies

  • 10

    Korea eyes launch of 4th Nuri space rocket in 2025

  • 12

    Rapper Mino attends sister's wedding in U.S. amid military service

  • 14

    Korea to ease immigration rules to attract more medical tourists

  • 16

    Local governments appeal to young generations through YouTube

  • 18

    Korea's diplomacy put to test amid signs of thaw in US-China relations

  • 20

    Big businesses face growing union pressure to extend retirement age

Close scrollclosebutton

Close for 24 hours

Open
  • The Korea Times
  • search
  • all menu
  • Login
  • Subscribe
  • Photos
  • Video
  • World
  • Sports
  • Opinion
  • Entertainment & Art
  • Lifestyle
  • Finance
  • Business
  • National
  • North Korea
National
  • Politics
  • Foreign Affairs
  • Multicultural Community
  • Defense
  • Environment & Animals
  • Law & Crime
  • Society
  • Health & Science
Wed, May 31, 2023 | 20:41
'Japanese firms must pay for wartime labor'
대법 "日기업, 강제징용 손해배상해야" 첫 판결
Posted : 2012-05-24 18:32
Updated : 2012-05-24 18:32
Print PreviewPrint Preview
Font Size UpFont Size Up
Font Size DownFont Size Down
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • kakaolink
  • whatsapp
  • reddit
  • mailto
  • link
Supreme Court rules for ex-Korean workers over Mitsubishi

By Na Jeong-ju

The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Japanese firms are responsible for compensating Koreans who were forced to work for them during the Japanese colonial period (1910-1945).

It overturned a lower court’s ruling that cleared two Japanese firms, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Nippon Steel Corp., of the responsibility to pay compensation, saying the forced labor was “illegal.”

A group of six Koreans who worked at the firms during World War II and their family members have been in a legal battle, demanding compensation for unpaid salaries and the “mental and physical suffering” they had to experience due to the forced labor.

The ruling paves the way for individual Korean war victims to get compensation. Scholars estimate that more than 1 million Koreans were either conscripted as soldiers or mobilized as forced laborers before and during World War II, but many have died.

It’s the first time that forced labor victims have won a damage suit in either Korea or Japan.

In 1965, Seoul and Tokyo signed an accord to reestablish diplomatic ties in exchange for Japan providing about $500 million in compensation and special loans. Citing the agreement, Japan has rejected all compensation claims by individual war victims.

Lee Myung-mok, 89, one of the plaintiffs, recalled that he was taken to a Mitsubishi’s manufacturing plant in Hiroshima in 1944 and had to work every day under severe conditions. He said he returned to Korea after an atomic bomb was dropped on the city on Aug. 6, 1945. In Japan, he missed his family in Korea, but every letter he wrote to them was censored by the company. He said he paid his own fare to go back to Korea after the bombing devastated Hiroshima.

The court said the Japanese firms must pay unpaid wages to the Korean laborers and compensate them for their suffering. “It was illegal to force them to work,” Judge Kim Neung-hwan said.

The group lodged a similar damages suit with a Japanese court in 1995, but lost as Japanese judges ruled that the statute of limitations on their cases had expired. The victims then filed another suit with a Korean court in 2005.

District and appeals courts also ruled against them, but acknowledged that the Japanese government had mobilized Koreans by force to supply manpower required at the Japanese firms and that they had undergone extreme hardship including compulsory labor and insufficient food.

Unlike Japan, Germany paid billions of Euros to a total of 1.67 million individual World War II victims, taking not just legal but moral responsibility. Japan says the 1965 accord with then-Park Chung-hee military regime cleared it of legal responsibility to compensate Korean victims.

대법 "日기업, 강제징용 손해배상해야" 첫 판결
"미쓰비시중공업·일본제철, 피해자에 임금지급·배상" 대법원이 일제강점기 강제 징용된 피해자들에게 일본 기업체가 손해배상을 해야 한다는 판결을 내렸다. 1, 2심을 뒤집은 이번 판결은 일제의 식민지배로 인해 피해를 입은 우리 국민이 일본기업을 상대로 제기한 여러 소송에서 승소 가능성을 인정한 첫 사법적 판단이다. 또한 일본과 미국 사법부의 판단과도 달라 주목을 끌고 있다. 대법원 민사1부(주심 김능환)는 1944년 일제와 구 미쓰비시중공업㈜, 구 일본제철㈜에 강제동원된 우리 국민 8명이 낸 손해배상 및 임금지급 청구 소송에서 원고들의 청구를 기각한 원심을 깨고 사건을 부산고법으로 돌려보냈다고 24일 밝혔다. 재판부는 "일본 재판소는 같은 내용의 소를 기각한 사실이 있지만 그 이유에 일본의 한반도와 한국인에 대한 식민지배가 합법적이라는 규범적 인식을 전제로 했다"며 "이에따라 일제의 국가총동원법과 국민징용령을 한반도와 원고 등에게 적용하는 것이 유효하다고 평가한 부분이 포함돼 있다"고 지적했다. 이어 "이러한 일본 판결은 일제강점기의 강제동원 자체를 불법이라고 보는 대한민국 헌법의 핵심적 가치와 정면으로 충돌해 그 효력을 승인할 수 없다"고 밝혔다. 재판부는 나아가 "1965년 체결된 한일 청구권협정의 해석을 통해 원고들의 미쓰비시중공업㈜, 신일본제철㈜에 대한 청구권은 청구권협정의 체결에 의하여 소멸했다고 볼 수 없다"고 판시했다. 재판부는 "대한민국 법률의 관점에서 피고 미쓰비시중공업㈜, 신일본제철㈜은 구 미쓰비시중공업㈜, 구 일본제철㈜과 각각 법적으로 동일한 회사로 평가돼 원고들의 청구권이 소멸 시효의 완성으로 소멸했다는 피고들의 주장은 신의 성실의 원칙에 반해 허용되지 않는다"고 설명했다. 한편 대법원은 일부 원고들이 제기한 1965년 한일 청구권협정에 대한 위헌법률심판제청신청사건에 대해서는 "청구권협정의 위헌 여부가 재판을 하기 위한 전제가 된다고 할 수 없다"는 이유로 신청을 각하했다.
Emailjj@koreatimes.co.kr Article ListMore articles by this reporter
 
wooribank
Top 10 Stories
1Korea to ease immigration rules to attract more medical tourists Korea to ease immigration rules to attract more medical tourists
2Running convenience stores becomes popular among people in 20s, 30s Running convenience stores becomes popular among people in 20s, 30s
3Big businesses face growing union pressure to extend retirement age Big businesses face growing union pressure to extend retirement age
4Sluggish exports behind weak Korean won Sluggish exports behind weak Korean won
5Anti-corruption watchdog set to investigate crypto assets of lawmakers Anti-corruption watchdog set to investigate crypto assets of lawmakers
6Naver suffers shrinking online search market share Naver suffers shrinking online search market share
7Seoul resident clashes with authorities for raising dogs to nab 'North Korean spies' Seoul resident clashes with authorities for raising dogs to nab 'North Korean spies'
8Pyongyang may have delayed spy satellite launch due to technical issues Pyongyang may have delayed spy satellite launch due to technical issues
9Doctors, pharmacists to receive 30% bonus for offering telemedicine service Doctors, pharmacists to receive 30% bonus for offering telemedicine service
10Yoon resumes public outreach upon rising approval rating Yoon resumes public outreach upon rising approval rating
Top 5 Entertainment News
1'Elemental' director on bringing his personal story of immigration to cinema 'Elemental' director on bringing his personal story of immigration to cinema
2[INTERVIEW] Lee Jun-hyuk unrecognizable in 'The Roundup: No Way Out' INTERVIEWLee Jun-hyuk unrecognizable in 'The Roundup: No Way Out'
3SHINee celebrates 15th anniversary of debut: 'It feels surreal' SHINee celebrates 15th anniversary of debut: 'It feels surreal'
4ENHYPEN reaches new career high with latest album 'Dark Blood' ENHYPEN reaches new career high with latest album 'Dark Blood'
5'Transformers: Rise of the Beasts' raises bar with epic battle scenes 'Transformers: Rise of the Beasts' raises bar with epic battle scenes
DARKROOM
  • Turkey-Syria earthquake

    Turkey-Syria earthquake

  • Nepal plane crash

    Nepal plane crash

  • Brazil capital uprising

    Brazil capital uprising

  • Happy New Year 2023

    Happy New Year 2023

  • World Cup 2022 Final - Argentina vs France

    World Cup 2022 Final - Argentina vs France

CEO & Publisher : Oh Young-jin
Digital News Email : webmaster@koreatimes.co.kr
Tel : 02-724-2114
Online newspaper registration No : 서울,아52844
Date of registration : 2020.02.05
Masthead : The Korea Times
Copyright © koreatimes.co.kr. All rights reserved.
  • About Us
  • Introduction
  • History
  • Contact Us
  • Products & Services
  • Subscribe
  • E-paper
  • RSS Service
  • Content Sales
  • Site Map
  • Policy
  • Code of Ethics
  • Ombudsman
  • Privacy Statement
  • Terms of Service
  • Copyright Policy
  • Family Site
  • Hankook Ilbo
  • Dongwha Group