Lawyers in South Korean wartime labor case set deadline for response from Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal

Lawyers representing South Korean plaintiffs in a World War II labor court case against Japan's Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp. have set a Dec. 24 deadline for the firm to show willingness to discuss a court verdict on compensation. If the firm fails to respond, the lawyers, who spoke after being denied a meeting with company officials for a second time on Tuesday, said they would start procedures to seize its South Korean assets. Tuesday's incident stemmed from a ruling by South Korea's Supreme Court late in October that Nippon Steel must pay 100 million won ($90,500) to each of four South Koreans for forced labor during the war. The Japanese government has denounced the verdict, saying all wartime reparations were dealt with in a 1965 treaty that normalized ties between the two nations. At the time of the ruling, Nippon Steel called it "extremely regrettable," but added that it would review the decision carefully in considering further steps.