The Japanese government is threatening to file a suit against South Korea at the International Court of Justice(ICJ) over a recent Supreme Court ruling.

Last week the top court in Seoul ordered a Japanese corporation to compensate Korean victims of forced labor during Japan's colonial rule, possibly opening the floodgates for other suits.

Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Tuesday unless Seoul promptly takes appropriate measures, Tokyo will consider all options, including taking the case to the international court.

Suga expressed deep regret that the ruling threatens the legal basis of the two countries' ties, which were normalized by a 1965 agreement that Tokyo says closed the book on the forced labor issue.

Japan's Sankei Shimbun newspaper reports Tokyo plans to take the case to the International Court of Justice unless Seoul pays compensation to the four South Korean plaintiffs instead of Japan's Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation, the defendant.