강제징용 자산 압류 효력 발생…日 ‘외교협의’ 요청

Last year, the Seoul's government ordered a Japanese firm... to provide compensation to Koreans forced into labor during World War Two.
Today, an order took effect freezing the company's assets.
It'll forfeit those assets if the firm doesn't agree to pay the victims as ordered.
Tokyo's government called for bilateral negotiations with South Korea to settle the dispute.
Park Hee-jun gets us up to speed with the developments.
The local assets of Nippon Steel and Sumimoto Metal Corporation were officially frozen on Wednesday after legal notification from the court was delivered to PNR, Nippon's joint venture with South Korean steelmaker POSCO.
The notice was sent by the Daegu District Court... after the Japanese steelmaker refused to respond to the Supreme Court's order to compensate Korean victims of wartime forced labor.
The assets in question are 81-thousand shares of PNR worth around 357-thousand U.S. dollars.
According to the Supreme Court's ruling, the company owes the four plaintiffs in the case about 87-thousand dollars each.
After the notice was sent, Tokyo formally requested negotiations with Seoul.
According to Japan's Kyodo News Agency,... Japan's Vice Foreign Minister Takeo Akiba summoned South Korea's Ambassador Lee Su-hoon to call for two-way talks based on the 1965 bilateral agreement that normalized ties between the two countries.
It would be the first time the two sides have held talks under the treaty about property claims.
But if negotiations don't work out,... the treaty calls for an arbitration committee that involving a third country.
And if that's not enough,... Japanese broadcaster NHK says the Japanese government could even consider taking the issue to the International Court of Justice.
Local media outlets have also reported that Tokyo is reviewing economic responses which could actually strike a blow to Seoul, such as freezing South Korean companies' assets in the country or raising tariffs on South Korean products.
Park Hee-jun, Arirang News.