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South Korean court orders sale of confiscated Nippon Steel assets

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Why doesn't japan just give the Korean govt hundred of billions of dollars to settle the issue and formally apologize?! Oh wait, this was done over 50 years ago, but the Korean govt squandered the money and repeatedly request new apologies. Smgdfh100x

34 ( +45 / -11 )

Moon had better immediately reverse this disgraceful political ruling by the corrupt court in Seoul. Failure to do so will result in Japan and her allies pulling all business out of SK and consumers worldwide boycotting SK.

The compensation issue has been settled 100% in finality.

28 ( +43 / -15 )

It is interesting when South Korean sympathizer use Germany as example to use on subjects regarding "Korea under Japanese rule" thing when the example more appropriated to use is about countries that colonized other nations and how was their action after being independent from them.

There are bunch of countries that colonized, raped and stole other nations like Spain and Portugal. Both of them did awful thing against Mexico and Brazil centuries ago, yet they never demanded their former colonizers to apologize to them and they are friends.

Another thing, if S. Korea government was concerned about her people, she would move on instead of demanding compensation. You dont see Mexico or Brazil demanding their former colonies compensation, money, etc... as S. Korea does. South Korea as well as China do it more for political reason rather than being worried about their own people.

27 ( +36 / -9 )

It’s Korean tradition to inflict injury on its own body. They just can’t help it. Now Korea has passed the point of no return in its relationship with Japan. There’s no turning back

25 ( +38 / -13 )

@ oyatoi - perhaps the real reason is Germany has mature, respectable neighbors that were victims in WW2 - such as Poland, France, Belgium, Netherlands etc. They have all forgiven Germany, moved on and have wonderful relations.

Unfortunately Japan has horrible, immature, emotional neighbors who always bear grudges - SK, NK, Communist China and totalitarian Russia. No amount of apologies would ever satisfy them.

24 ( +34 / -10 )

Lets start from the very beginning, because it is a very good place to start.....

The SK courts top to bottom judgments are meaningless

SK signed the treaty under international law...

You have to own it

https://treaties.un.org/doc/Publication/UNTS/Volume%20583/volume-583-I-8471-English.pdf

You signed it, no ifs, buts, this, that or maybe

The only route is through the ICJ

Or else the government of Japan could sanction seize SK pension assesses don't go there or worse.

22 ( +31 / -9 )

Mon, instead of concerning about Japan, how about solving the problem with your own citizen who were persecuted by Pres. Park between 1960s to 1970s?

21 ( +29 / -8 )

Do not expect those judges who could be younger than you who got heavily infected with disgusting FAKE narratives could even make proper judgements. How could they? They do not even go through proper fact-finding process for each cases at the courts. It is just like, if you raise your hands claiming you are comfort woman, you would be registered officially at the government level and start shouting every Wednesday in front of Japanese embassy. They don't even read , hence have no idea on what kind of dialogue exactly did take place to reach the 1965 treaty. Especially on the very parts where Japanese delegates insisted on paying for unpaid wages and/or compensating for injuries individually and directly in the same way it had domestically done.

These judges and such Koreans, gyppos, anyone pushing these insane movements forward are ... simply...

20 ( +29 / -9 )

It is interesting when South Korean sympathizer use Germany as example to use on subjects regarding "Korea under Japanese rule" thing when the example more appropriated to use is about countries that colonized other nations and how was their action after being independent from them.

They have nothing else but such ridiculous comparison. They just cannot argue based on the facts.

Heck. How many years has passed already before Germany officially admitted and apologized this year for the very 1st time toward only one of it's many ex-colonies, for genocide in Namibia, and yet, Germany never admitted and accepted it's legal responsibilities. Laughable as always , those who know nothing about German Apologies.

19 ( +26 / -7 )

Germany never admitted and accepted it's legal responsibilities. Laughable as always , those who know nothing about German Apologies.

Oh, please.

Germany is a hugely admired, modern and peaceful democracy. They have made their apologies for a period of evil that occurred 70-80 years ago. As has Japan.

How many centuries are haters going to pile on the hate?

19 ( +26 / -7 )

"petty" now has been defined.

18 ( +25 / -7 )

If the presents South Korean believe there's a case, then the best course of action is through the singed agreed conflict resolution agreement .

17 ( +23 / -6 )

Fighto!Today  08:51 pm JST

Germany never admitted and accepted it's legal responsibilities. Laughable as always , those who know nothing about German Apologies.

Oh, please.

Germany is a hugely admired, modern and peaceful democracy. They have made their apologies for a period of evil that occurred 70-80 years ago. As has Japan.

How many centuries are haters going to pile on the hate?

No. You are wrong. German Apologies have never made to it's ex-colonies, nor victims of WW1 & 2, except toward Holocaust & Jews. For the very 1 st time ever this year 2021, it admitted and apologized for genocide in Namibia, yet Germany did not accept it's legal responsibilities for it.

13 ( +18 / -5 )

*For those who always compare Japan with the 3rd Reich, I stress again, Imperial Japan never thought of extinguishing a particular race. Not to mention what they have done to the Jews, Nazis oppressed Polish saying " It's enough for them to be educated up to around 4th grade in elementary school level, if they can count the number up to 500 and can write their own names, it's just enough" It abducted and murdered about a million intelligence in Poland. *However, Polish still preferred to be occupied by Germans rather than Russians because they believed Germany had culture. This is the terrible reality of the humane history.

 

*Did Japan ever treat, say, Korea like that? Japan ended slavery over there and introduced compulsory education for every children including those unable to attend the school due to their ex-slave status or poverty. The 2nd Imperial University was established in Korea even before Osaka Imperial University. Oh Yes I don't doubt Japanese then had some kind superiority complex over them.* But Comparison of Japan and Germany IS totally ridiculous.

13 ( +20 / -7 )

perhaps the real reason is Germany has mature, respectable neighbors that were victims in WW2 - such as Poland, France, Belgium, Netherlands etc. They have all forgiven Germany, moved on and have wonderful relations. 

Unfortunately Japan has horrible, immature, emotional neighbors who always bear grudges - SK, NK, Communist China and totalitarian Russia. No amount of apologies would ever satisfy them.

Absolutely. Just look at how differently South Korea treats Japan from North Korea. When Trump met Kim Jong Un for the first time, South Korea cancelled its joint military drill with the U.S. along the border, yet it still did its regular drill on the Liancourt Rocks "in case of an invasion from Japan". Koreans are obsessed with things that happened over seventy years ago, yet they forgot all about the time North Korea bombed Yeonpyeong eleven years ago, or the time North Korea killed and burned a South Korean diplomat two years ago.

South Korea needs to stop being a bunch of hypocrites, blaming Japan for everything.

10 ( +14 / -4 )

Because there is "no once and for all" with South Korea.

8 ( +12 / -4 )

Counter South Korea aggression and Anti-Japan policy with equal strength.

South Korea is going back on its agreements as Final and Irreversible.

South Korea getting closer to China, Russia and North. While pushing Japan and America farther away.

South Korea won't join Quad Alliance or make emergency plans with Japan and USA to help Taiwan.

Moon of S. Korea:three promises Moon made to Beijing regarding no further THAAD deployment, not joining a US-led global missile defence network, and not establishing a formal trilateral military alliance with the US and Japan.

South Korea is shady and not an Ally or friend!! This country has its own double agenda of playing both sides for maximum return!!

6 ( +12 / -6 )

@Samit BasuToday 10:48 pm JST

The Supreme Court ruled Japanese companies are not protected by the 1965 treaty due to the lack of the word "damages" in the treaty text and are exposed to damages claim by the forced laborers, and no one can reverse this decision.

Before discussing whether anyone can do something about the ruling, let's agree that it is disgraceful and political. South Korea uses the same basic civil law system as Japan - a branch off the German. Damages for torts (不法行爲) are a kind of claim (債権) - Korean Hanja and Japanese Kanji even use the same glyphs. In the Korean Civil Act, Part III is Claims. Chapter V of Part III is the Torts.

For them to pretend that damages are somehow a separate category is literally against their own understanding of civil law.

The US State Department officials are frustrated by Japanese inactions, because $50 million is nothing and why doesn't Japan just pay up and end this dispute once and for all.

Maybe it is not the amount, but the principles of the matter? Against allowing one country's organ (judicial or otherwise) having the unilateral right to interpret a bilateral treaty? Against yielding to a clearly crappy verdict?

5 ( +10 / -5 )

Yes, Japanese occupation of Korea is legally considered to be illegal and criminal, hence Japan is liable for all the damages resulting from actions of Imperial Japan from 1910 through 1945.

Only by Koreans. Japan and none of other countries consider as such.

Japan itself has at least admitted the 1910 annexation treaty was already null and void without having taken any action to nullify it prior to the 1965 treaty.

Japan did nullify it by accepting San Fran Treaty (Article 2)

South Korean supreme court is filled with bunch of idiots intentionally ignoring and overstepping Article 3 in the Agreement on the Settlement of Problems Concerning Property and Claims and on Economic Co-operation between Japan and the Republic of Korea, which clearly stipulates how to proceed in case of any disputes on interpretation and implementation of the agreement.

5 ( +10 / -5 )

@Summit BasuToday 01:38 am JST

You don't get it. The damages claims are written as 犯罪損害賠償, translated as "damages compensations resulting from criminal actions".

I see. Since your translation didn't make it clear, I thought they would at least use the established categories, but they tried to create a new one to evade the clear meaning of the treaty text? Under the ordinary categorization system, so called "犯罪損害賠償" would fall into the torts "不法行爲" and dealt with accordingly. But of course that would mean they would have to accept it is under claims, so they came up with this pathetic dodge.

You are not making Korea look any better. And the international system cannot work if after signing an agreement to settle one side invents new categories to evade the settlement and extort money.

Yes, Japanese occupation of Korea is legally considered to be illegal and criminal,

Legally considered by who? The clearly politicized Korean Supreme Court? Even though the Korean Prime Minister signed the document and it had the national seal on it?

5 ( +10 / -5 )

Yes, Japanese occupation of Korea is legally considered to be illegal and criminal, hence Japan is liable for all the damages resulting from actions of Imperial Japan from 1910 through 1945.

delusional Koreans desperately trying to defend their pathetic country’s actions. Who considered the occupation as illegal?

5 ( +10 / -5 )

According to Lee Jae Myung, the ruling Democratic Party’s candidate for the 2022 South Korean presidential election. In a recent interview, he ruled out the possibility of a United States-South Korea-Japan military alliance, adding that South Korea “needs to be prepared in the event Japan’s dream of continental expansion erupts militarily.”

Doesn't matter left, right, center, in Korean government, They all have one thing in common: Their Burning Hate for a weak Japan, willing to bend to Korean demands and give them everything they ask for, like a parent giving a spoiled child all their demands with no results.

If you reward Bad Behavior with Apologies, Compensation, Added to Privilege List of Trading Partners, Let them Keep Takeshima Island, even try to change the name of Japan Sea.

Is the Results surprising....... NOT! Not for me. I've seen this train coming for decades now, and standing strong is the only way!

4 ( +9 / -5 )

Fighto! South Korea has started the hate towards the Japanese. It can only be ended by them. This will not happen as long as hatred towards the Japanese is taught in their schools. I am more worried about South Korea attacking Japan than China.

4 ( +9 / -5 )

@Fighto!Jan. 1  08:34 am JST

KennyG -:

For those who always compare **Japan with the 3rd Reich, I stress again, Imperial Japan never thought of extinguishing a particular race.** Not to mention what they have done to the Jews, Nazis oppressed Polish saying " It's enough for them to be educated up to around 4th grade in elementary school level, if they can count the number up to 500 and can write their own names, it's just enough" It abducted and murdered about a million intelligence in Poland. ****However, Polish still preferred to be occupied by Germans rather than Russians because they believed Germany had culture. This is the terrible reality of the humane history.

You really need to let it go. These things happened over 80 years ago.

Drop the hate and look to the future. Same goes for Korea.

Oh please. Have you been reading my posts? I have been only blaming disgusting lies and ridiculous comparison made by those who are the ones unable to let it go or simply pointing out incorrect historical recognition

4 ( +6 / -2 )

P. SmithToday  05:59 pm JST

Let me get this straight: South Korea started the hate despite the facts that Japan occupied Korea, brutalized it’s people, has paid lip service via “apologies,” and erased those hollow apologies with actions such as government ministers worshipping war criminals and textbooks that paint Japan as the victim.

This “logic” is a direct byproduct of the Japanese “education” system.

You just not getting it straight. Pretty skewed. Japan ended Korean slave system and let all the children go to the school by implementing compulsory education system in Korea. Despite your idiotic brutalization narrative, even after so-called Kanto earthquake massacre, Koreans tried to move to Japan.

AND annexation is not occupation and the sea existing between 2 lands does not change this truth.

4 ( +7 / -3 )

Japan should stop selling anything to South Korea. South Korea will just steal any investments from Japan. Also Japanese need to counter boycott South Korean.

3 ( +7 / -4 )

KennyG -:

*For those who always compare Japan with the 3rd Reich, I stress again, Imperial Japan never thought of extinguishing a particular race. Not to mention what they have done to the Jews, Nazis oppressed Polish saying " It's enough for them to be educated up to around 4th grade in elementary school level, if they can count the number up to 500 and can write their own names, it's just enough" It abducted and murdered about a million intelligence in Poland. *However, Polish still preferred to be occupied by Germans rather than Russians because they believed Germany had culture. This is the terrible reality of the humane history.

You really need to let it go. These things happened over 80 years ago.

Drop the hate and look to the future. Same goes for Korea.

2 ( +5 / -3 )

P. SmithJan. 4  06:59 pm JST

kennyGJan. 3  08:16 pm JST

P. SmithToday  07:37 am JST

Which PM are you talking about as Japan's 1st post-war prime minister? Did you even know who it was?*

Naruhikouou Higashikuninomiya? Kijyurou Shitehara? Shigeru Yoshida?

If you meant Nobusuke Kishi who's not the 1st post-war PM at all

You’re correct. I meant the first post-occupation prime minister. Then again, it’s not as if the prime ministers during the occupation had any real power.

Lol The first post-occupation prime minister was Shigeru Yoshida who had nothing to do with Trial. And as I repeatedly said, Nobusuke Kishi was not even indicted meaning has got nothing to do with war crime either.

Get it straight.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Fighto! South Korea has started the hate towards the Japanese. It can only be ended by them. 

Umm, did you even read my posts? That is exactly my position.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

Otherwise known by his collaborationist name 高木正雄 (Takagi Masao). It does no honour to Japan to continue to insist that its moral obligation to compensate Korea for its 35 year long occupation and the particularly heinous crimes inflicted towards the end was discharged by those reparations; the total sum of which was a paltry fraction of that which truncated Germany paid. The sham treaty serves as a testament to a venal expediency that history has caught up with and demands to be put right.

A typical post of " Anything skewed goes" by a poster who lives daily lives for long in Japan.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

FYI for SamitBasu & readers in general: I don't think the Japanese Kanji for "Fu-Hou Kou-I" is correct.

Those look like Chinese (Chinese language) characters to me.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

@Kazuaki Shimazaki

I thought they would at least use the established categories

It is.

https://www.google.co.jp/search?q=%E6%90%8D%E5%AE%B3%E8%B3%A0%E5%84%9F

Damages (損害賠償)

At common law, damages are a remedy in the form of a monetary award to be paid to a claimant as compensation for loss or injury. To warrant the award, the claimant must show that a breach of duty has caused foreseeable loss. Wikipedia

https://insurance.yahoo.co.jp/member/plan/baisyo

You can actually buy 損害賠償 insurance on yahoo.co.jp

損害賠償 is a widely used term in Japan. I am shocked you are not familiar with this everyday Japanese term.

-6 ( +5 / -11 )

Fully justified.

-6 ( +3 / -9 )

"A South Korean court has ordered the sale of confiscated assets of Nippon Steel Corp to compensate plaintiffs in a wartime forced labor lawsuit, a court official said, in the second court decision of its kind."

The South Korean court did the right thing. And the Japanese rightists' bullhorns are too far away to be heard in South Korea.

Mention was made by a contributor about how "Park's men" plundered the South Korean government. These corrupt people, along with dictator Park, were set up by the United States and with the acceptance by the Japanese government.

-9 ( +4 / -13 )

@Kazuaki Shimazaki

You don't get it. The damages claims are written as 犯罪損害賠償, translated as "damages compensations resulting from criminal actions".

Yes, Japanese occupation of Korea is legally considered to be illegal and criminal, hence Japan is liable for all the damages resulting from actions of Imperial Japan from 1910 through 1945.

Japan itself has at least admitted the 1910 annexation treaty was already null and void without having taken any action to nullify it prior to the 1965 treaty.

-10 ( +3 / -13 )

@Falco

Just look at how differently South Korea treats Japan from North Korea.

North Korea is not considered a country in the ROK, but a communist rebels occupying ROK territory.

And no, the ROK doesn't consider Japan to be its territory, but a sovereign foreign country.

So there would be differences in how the ROK deals with domestic rebels vs a foreign sovereign country.

-12 ( +3 / -15 )

For those hoping that the next Korean administration swearing in after March presidential election mend relations with Japan, don't.

The leftwing candidate is now pulling ahead of the rightwing candidate by a margin of 8%, due to voter dissatisfaction with the rightwing candidate. There is no chance of poll trend reversing because it's now entering the debate stage, where the leftwing candidate is a skilled master debater while the rightwing candidate never debated before and is prone to gaffes and confusions. The rightwing party expected to lose support after debate rounds, but not before the debates have started

The leftwing candidate is an even harder anti-Japan nationalist than Moon is, which means Japan-Korea relations will sink even lower than it is now next year.

https://en.yna.co.kr/view/AEN20211229006651315

(LEAD) Lee leads Yoon 37.4 pct to 29.3 pct: poll

 20:08 December 29, 2021

-13 ( +2 / -15 )

It sure looks like this matter of compensation will never be put to rest for as long as Japan and S. Korea refuse to face the music and directly deal with it. the 1965 agreement may have been enough but many S. Koreans don't feel it was.

-18 ( +2 / -20 )

There’s a reason why Germany’s relations with its neighbors are on far more of an even keel. Not only did German reparations (still ongoing) dwarf Japans, but the respect it has won by electing not to pursue irredentist claims on incontestably German lands contrasts favorably with Japan’s penny wise, pound foolish, bargain basement reparations and refusal to let go of its claim to the Liancourt Rocks. Japan’s muddled diplomacy, characterized by insincere apologies, no sooner uttered than contradicted, and its continuing strained relationship with a country whose occupation ended three quarters of a century ago contrast unfavorably with everything Germany, in a far more difficult situation, has achieved.

-23 ( +15 / -38 )

Failure to do so will result in Japan and her allies pulling all business out of SK and consumers worldwide boycotting SK.

I think that this matter is a local spat. Business's around the world are hardly likely to get involved in this little Blood Feud.

-23 ( +7 / -30 )

It’s hardly at all surprising that there are those who see nothing to be critical of in Japan’s stonewalling and denialism vis a vis its unfinished business in Korea. Desperate to avoid comparing Japan’s maladroit diplomacy with Germany’s, their recourse is absolution through historical analogy. It is precisely because Germany did NOT choose THAT course which has garnered a much fuller and genuine respect than has Japan; a respect the latter craves but which thus far has eluded it precisely BECAUSE it resists accepting accountability commensurate with its wrongs.

-23 ( +10 / -33 )

how about solving the problem with your own citizen who were persecuted by Pres Park between 1960s to 1970s?

Otherwise known by his collaborationist name 高木正雄 (Takagi Masao). It does no honour to Japan to continue to insist that its moral obligation to compensate Korea for its 35 year long occupation and the particularly heinous crimes inflicted towards the end was discharged by those reparations; the total sum of which was a paltry fraction of that which truncated Germany paid. The sham treaty serves as a testament to a venal expediency that history has caught up with and demands to be put right.

-24 ( +3 / -27 )

@Fighto!

Moon had better immediately reverse this disgraceful political ruling

That's not how the separation of power works in Korea. The president has no say in the verdict of the judiciary.

The Supreme Court ruled Japanese companies are not protected by the 1965 treaty due to the lack of the word "damages" in the treaty text and are exposed to damages claim by the forced laborers, and no one can reverse this decision.

What the court did was to set the deadline for filing damages claims(2015), so it's not open ended and the maximum amount of damages exposed by Japanese companies is known, around the $50 million.

The US State Department officials are frustrated by Japanese inactions, because $50 million is nothing and why doesn't Japan just pay up and end this dispute once and for all.

-28 ( +5 / -33 )

Failure to do so will result in Japan and her allies pulling all business out of SK

Japan has an occupation force and zero allies.

-31 ( +3 / -34 )

Failure to do so will result in Japan and her allies

Which allies are those?

-38 ( +8 / -46 )

Japan has no respect at all from it's neighbors! How could it? American occupation come to Japan and do whatever they like and the Japanese government pays them to do it! There needs to be regime change in Japan, the occupation forces need to be kicked out immediately and Japan seek normal relations based on mutual respect with Russia and China. Do that and Korea, both north and south will start treating Japan with respect. They won't have any choice but to do that.

As is, why the hell would Korea, north or south, respect Japan?

-55 ( +4 / -59 )

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