Surviving Forced Labor Victim Accepts Government Compensation Package.

SEOUL: An elderly South Korean survivor of Japan's wartime forced labor has accepted a disputed government-led compensation package, joining others who have opted for the payout despite a 2018 court ruling in their favor. Lee Choon-shik, 104, became the third and last surviving victim to collect the compensation and delayed interest under the "third-party" solution adopted by the Yoon Suk Yeol government in March last year. According to Yonhap News Agency, Lee's decision follows about a week after Yang Geum-deok, another forced labor victim, accepted the package from the government-affiliated public fund managing the reparations. Both Lee and Yang were among the 15 original plaintiffs who won the 2018 Supreme Court ruling that ordered Nippon Steel and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to compensate Korean victims for their forced labor during World War II. Korea was under Japan's colonial rule from 1910 to 1945. Kim Seong-ju, now deceased, was the first surviving victim to accept the third-party package in May la st year. Initially, Lee and Yang had refused the compensation offered by the current government, protesting President Yoon's decision to exclude the responsible Japanese companies from contributing to the payout. Their recent acceptance of the package is now drawing attention to whether it will influence the stances of the remaining plaintiffs, who are family members of deceased victims. President Yoon, aiming to improve ties with Tokyo, announced that South Korea would compensate the victims using donations from South Korean companies that benefited from the 1965 post-war bilateral treaty with Japan. Contributions from Japanese companies remain voluntary. Despite Seoul's appeal for voluntary involvement from Japanese companies, no donations from Japan have been made, leaving the public foundation handling the compensation underfunded. Japan has maintained its stance of non-compliance with the court rulings, insisting that all compensation matters were settled under the 1965 treaty that normalized bilateral relations.