Seoul court asked to ok seizure of Mitsubishi Heavy Assets

March 7, 2019

Seoul--South Korean plaintiffs who have won a wartime labor lawsuit against Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. <7011> asked a Seoul court on Thursday to approve the seizure of assets held by the Japanese company in South Korea, including patents.

The plaintiffs said in a statement that they had no choice but to start the seizure process as the company refused to comply with a November 2018 South Korean top court order to pay compensation for the labor that they claimed to have been forced to provide during World War II.

The action came after a district court branch in southeastern South Korea approved in January a request by plaintiffs in a similar wartime labor suit for the seizure of assets of Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp. <5401>, following a Supreme Court of Korea ruling last October that ordered the Japanese steelmaker to pay compensation to them. The assets have already been seized by the plaintiffs' side.

"The situation is extremely grave," Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a press conference in Tokyo on Thursday.

Suga said the South Korean government "should accept in good faith" Tokyo's request to hold talks on the matter under a 1965 bilateral agreement on war-related claim rights.

The Japanese government takes the position that the issue of wartime compensation between the two countries was resolved by the accord.

The latest seizure request was filed with Seoul Central District Court by four of the five plaintiffs in the case against Mitsubishi Heavy. The other plaintiff died in late January, according to their statement.

The request covers two trademarks and six patents that Mitsubishi Heavy owns in South Korea. Jiji Press