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For the victims, the decision culminated in a long and difficult legal battle.
Their fight for compensation began in 1997 when two former workers sued Nippon Steel and Sumitomo Metal in Japan. But the courts took sides with Japanese society and government, claiming that the 1965 treaty had settled the matter.
In 2005, they joined two other former workers to take their case to South Korean courts. At first, the judges supported the decisions of the Japanese courts. But in 2012, the Supreme Court referred the case to a lower court, claiming that Japanese decisions violated the South Korean Constitution and international legal norms.
In 2013, a South Korean court of first instance ordered the Japanese steelmaker to compensate the plaintiffs. In the same year, another court ordered the Japanese company Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to pay a similar compensation to five former workers. In 2014, another Japanese company, Nachi-Fujikoshi, was sentenced to compensate 13 former workers still alive and the families of 18 other dead.
Japanese companies appealed, which eventually led to the Supreme Court decision on Tuesday upholding workers' claims.
South Korean prosecutors are investigating allegations that the Supreme Court has asked former President Park Geun-Hye of budget and political favors in exchange for postponing a decision on the case in order to preserve Ms. Park from a diplomatic headache. In 2016, his Foreign Ministry told the court that he feared diplomatic repercussions if he ruled in favor of the victims.
President Moon Jae-in, who replaced Ms. Park last year after her dismissal, argued that the 1965 agreement should not prevent victims from seeking redress. Mr. Moon also criticized, but did not cancel, Ms. Park's 2015 unpopular agreement with Japan aimed at "resolving in a definitive and irreversible way" a decades-old dispute over "women of comfort", Korean women forced into sexual slavery during the World War. II.
Washington has repeatedly called on Japan and South Korea to overcome historical differences in order to better collaborate with the United States to end the North Korean nuclear threat and counter the growing influence of the North. China in the region.
