Japan has once again found itself entangled in a recurring skirmish with South Korea over wartime labor — a seemingly intractable row with no end in sight.
On Tuesday, a South Korean district court completed the process of serving the Japanese side with documents ordering the seizure of Nippon Steel Corp. assets, including around 81,000 shares it had acquired through its joint venture with the Korean firm Posco.
The action pushes the liquidation of the assets closer to reality, following through on a 2018 decision by South Korea’s Supreme Court ordering the Japanese firm to provide about ¥40 million in compensation to four Koreans who said they were forced to work against their will for the steel-maker’s predecessor during Japan’s colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.