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Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe holds a press conference at the Liberal Democratic Party headquarters in Tokyo on July 22, the day after the House of Councillors election. (Yonhap News)
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PNR based in South Korea receives seizure order
A South Korean court decision that was mailed to Nippon Steel has been sent back by Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Hankyoreh has discovered. The court decision ordered the seizure of assets belonging to the company, which committed war crimes during World War II. The Japanese Foreign Ministry didn’t elaborate on its rationale for returning the documents in question. Attorneys for Korean victims of forced labor and officials at the Pohang branch of the Daegu District Court, which is handling the forcible execution of the judicial decision, told the Hankyoreh on Monday that the seizure order that the Pohang branch court had sent the Japanese Foreign Ministry was returned on July 30. The ministry didn’t include any documents explaining its rationale. On Jan. 8, the Pohang branch court accepted a seizure request submitted by lawyers for Koreans forced to work for Nippon Steel. Having calculated that Nippon Steel owns some 2,340,000 shares (worth 11 billion won, or US$9.05 million) in PNR, a joint venture it established with POSCO, the legal team asked the court to seize 81,075 shares (worth some 400 million won, or US$329,192), to cover the victims’ damages and the loss incurred by delay. While South Korea-based PNR has received the seizure order, Nippon Steel, which owes the damages, has not, because the Japanese Foreign Ministry refused to forward the documents. But PNR’s receipt of the seizure order makes it valid, even if Nippon Steel hasn’t received it. The Pohang branch court is currently looking into the plaintiffs’ request for the court to order the sale of Nippon Steel’s Korean assets. On June 18, the court submitted a letter of inquiry to Nippon Steel, asking it to “submit any opinion it may have about the sale order request in writing within 60 days.” The letter in question was reportedly sent to the Japanese Foreign Ministry on July 8. The ministry is supposed to deliver this letter to Nippon Steel via the court with jurisdiction. “There’s no way for a South Korean court to know how far the letter of inquiry has gotten,” a source at the Pohang branch court said. Analysts believe it will take at least seven or eight months for the court to rule on the sale order. By Ko Han-sol, staff reporter Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]
