From
Send to

일제 징용 피해자 "신일본제철 배상판결 환영"

July 10, 2013 - 17:16 By 임우정

일제피해자공제조합과 근로정신대 할머니와 함께하는 시민모임은 10일 논평을 내고 신일본제철이 일제 강점기 강제 징용 피해자들 에게 각각 1억원씩 배상하라는 취지의 서울고등법원 판결을 환영한다고 밝혔다.

이들 단체는 "이번 판결은 지난해 5월 24일 대법원 파기 환송사건 선고 취지를 재확인한 것"이라며 "특히 일제가 자행한 아시아태평양전쟁 피해국가 중 최초로 광복 68년 만에 일제 전범기업에 배상 판결을 언도했다는 점에서 역사적인 판결"이라고 평가했다.

이들 단체는 "피해국가인 대한민국 사법부가 우리 헌법 정신에 입각해 가해자인 일제 전범기업에 배상의 철퇴를 내린 오늘은 일제 피해자들에게 비로소 제2의 광복이자 대한민국 사법주권을 다시 세운 날로 기록될 것"이라고 강조했다.

일제 피해자 단체들은 오는 30일 부산고등법원에서 선고를 앞둔 미쓰비시중공업 피해자들이 제기한 파기 환송 사건을 비롯해 앞으로 과거사 문제와 관련한 유사 소송이 잇따를 것으로 전망했다.

이들 단체는 논평을 통해 구순을 바라보는 피해자들을 상대로 신일본제철 등 피 고 기업이 대법원에 재상고하는 음모를 거둘 것과 우리 정부의 대책 마련을 촉구했다.

이들 단체는 "외교부는 얼마 전까지 일제 징용 피해자들의 소송을 '사인 간 민사소송'으로 치부하고 강 건너 불구경했다"며 윤병세 외교부 장관의 경질을 주장했다.

 

<관련 영문 기사>

Court orders Nippon Steel to compensate Korean ex-laborers

An appellant court on Wednesday ordered Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp. to compensate four former Korean employees forced into labor during Japan’s colonial rule.

In a retrial, the Seoul High Court ruled that the steel giant (formerly Nippon Steel Corp.) should pay 100 million won ($88,000) each in delayed salary, and additional damages.

“Then a key defense contractor, Nippon Steel committed anti-humanitarian, illegal acts together with the Japanese government such as mobilizing manpower for an aggressive war,” the verdict said.

“War of aggression runs against not only the international order and Korea’s Constitution but also that of today’s Japan.”

The four suitors including a 90-year-old surnamed Yeo and an 87-year-old surnamed Shin lodged a collective suit in Seoul against the Tokyo-based steelmaker in 2005, seeking 100 million won per person in withheld wages and compensation for illegal acts.

They said they were conscripted as teens and worked at the Japanese firm’s plants in Osaka and elsewhere without decent salary between 1941 and 1943.

Yeo and Shin separately filed a similar case in Osaka in 1997 but lost eventually in 2003.

Seoul’s district and appellate courts initially dismissed the four people’s claims in light of the Japanese rulings and a change in Nippon Steel’s corporate structure.

In a landmark move, the Supreme Court overturned the rulings and sent the case back to the high court in May 2012, calling the Japanese decision a “direct challenge to the core values of the Korean Constitution that regards forcible mobilization during the occupation as illegal in itself.”

It acknowledged the former laborers’ individual right to seek compensation for the first time, saying it was not nullified by a 1965 settlement between the two countries on wartime claims.

The Korean government maintains that the victims are entitled to pursue compensation both on a governmental and individual basis.

That same month, the top court also ruled in favor of another group of five Koreans claiming compensation from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd.

Upon the 2000 filing, they demanded that the engineering and aviation conglomerate pay back wages and compensation for their forced work from 1941-44.

The Busan High Court is scheduled to hand down the ruling of the retrial on July 30.

According to the Prime Minister’s Office, almost 227,000 Koreans have reported their forced labor in Japan. Some scholars project that the number of forced workers between April 1938 and Korea’s liberation in August 1945 may have reached 8 million.

In another development, a Seoul court on Wednesday ordered a Japanese activist to provide compensation for defaming a late Korean independence fighter.

Last September, Nobuyuki Suzuki planted a wooden stake claiming Tokyo’s ownership over the Korean islets of Dokdo beside a monument set up in central Japan to honor Yun Bong-gil, who was executed there in 1932 for his attempts to assassinate Japanese leaders during its 1910-45 colonization of the peninsula.

The Seoul Central District Court ordered Suzuki to pay Yun’s family 10 million won in compensation for emotional injury.

The ultra-right activist also faces more civil and criminal trials here for vandalism in Seoul and Tokyo against history-related memorials and former Korean sex slaves for Japanese soldiers.

By Shin Hyon-hee (heeshin@heraldcorp.com)