A SOUTH KOREAN court has rejected a claim by dozens of World War II-era Korean factory workers and their relatives seeking compensation from 16 Japanese firms for their slave labour during Japan’s colonial occupation of Korea.

Today’s decision by the Seoul Central District Court appeared to run against landmark Supreme Court rulings in 2018 that ordered Nippon Steel and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to compensate Korean forced labourers.

The ruling largely aligns with the position maintained by the Japanese government, which insists all wartime compensation issues were settled under a 1965 treaty normalising relations between the two nations that was accompanied by hundreds of millions of dollars in economic aid and loans from Tokyo to Seoul.