BUSAN, South Korea: A South Korean court ordered Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd to pay a total of 400 million won or $360,200 in compensation to five South Koreans for forced labour during Japan's colonial rule in the second such ruling this month.
Mitsubishi said it would appeal the decision.
The five plaintiffs are all deceased and their families represented them in the case.
"It would have been better if it was resolved when he was alive," Park Jae-hoon, son of one of the plaintiffs, told reporters after the ruling.
The Busan High Court's decision followed a separate ruling ordering Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp to pay compensation to four South Koreans for forced labour during Japan's 35-year colonial rule of Korea.
The Seoul High Court ruled against Nippon Steel & Sumitomo ordering it to pay 100 million Korean won to each of the four plaintiffs.
Nippon Steel has also said it will appeal.
The two cases are the first rulings in favour of South Koreans seeking compensation from Japanese companies for forced labour that come at the end of more than a decade of litigation.
Japanese courts have thrown out claims by South Koreans and Chinese who suffered under Japanese rule, arguing the matter of compensation was closed under the 1965 treaty between the two countries normalising diplomatic ties.
The South Korean government believes 299 Japanese companies currently in operation used forced labour during the colonial period. (Reuters)
