"S. Korea court dismisses wartime labor suit against Mitsubishi Materials", 11 Aug 2021

A South Korean district court on Wednesday dismissed a damages lawsuit filed by five South Koreans against Mitsubishi Materials Corp. over wartime labor, saying the suit was launched after a statute of limitations on the civil case had expired.

The plaintiffs, who are the bereaved family of a person surnamed Lee, had demanded 100 million won ($86,600) from the Japanese company, claiming that Lee was forced to work at coal mines in Japan from 1941 to 1945.

But the Seoul Central District Court said in the day's ruling that by the time the suit was filed in 2017, the statute of limitations on their right to claims had expired.

The South Korean Supreme Court in a groundbreaking decision on May 24, 2012, said the right of individuals such as former wartime laborers to pursue compensation was not nullified by a 1965 agreement between Japan and South Korea.

The district court held that the plaintiffs should have filed the case within three years of the top court ruling, before the statute of limitations expired in May 2015.

Wednesday's ruling suggests similar lawsuits filed by former wartime laborers and their bereaved families after the statute of limitations expired in May 2015 could be dismissed on the same grounds. However, it is just a district court-level decision and no firm legal precedent has been set on wartime labor cases in South Korea...