This file photo shows the logo of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd., a Japanese firm accused of wartime forced labor. (Yonhap)
ANYANG, Sept. 2 (Korea Bizwire) — The families of four forced labor victims have withdrawn a request to seize what was believed to be assets of Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. in South Korea, legal sources said Thursday.
The families recently filed the withdrawal request with the Anyang branch of the Suwon District Court, just south of Seoul, through the law firms representing them, the sources said, after finding that the assets did not directly belong to the company.
Last month, the families asked the court to seize bonds allegedly owned by Mitsubishi after claiming to have confirmed business transactions between the Japanese firm and LS Mtron Ltd., a local industrial machinery manufacturer.
The court upheld the request and ordered the seizure of about the 850 million won (US$733,000) worth of bonds in LS Mtron.
But the South Korean company denied doing business with Mitsubishi Heavy, telling the court in a statement that its dealings have only been with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Engine Systems Co. Ltd., a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Heavy.
“After reviewing the statement and the attached documents, we determined that LS Mtron’s assertion is true,” the families’ legal representative said.
The plaintiffs had sought the seizure amid Mitsubishi Heavy’s refusal to pay damages to the victims as ordered by the South Korean Supreme Court in 2018.
Tensions between South Korea and Japan persist over Tokyo’s colonization of the Korean Peninsula from 1910-45, during which Koreans were forced into labor or sexual slavery for Japanese troops, among other things.
(Yonhap)
