Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries has criticized a South Korean Supreme Court ruling on Japan's wartime forced labor as "extremely regretful."

In a statement posted on its Web site Thursday, Mitsubishi said the ruling goes against the 1965 bilateral treaty as well as the Japanese government's stance and a previous top court ruling issued in Japan.

The Supreme Court ruled earlier Thursday that Mitsubishi must compensate Korean victims of forced labor who worked at its production facilities during the colonial era. 

In the statement, the company said that South Korea's top court has rejected the appeal it had filed in a compensation lawsuit lodged by Korean plaintiffs who claim they worked at Mitsubishi during World War Two. 

The firm reiterated the issue of rights to damages between the two countries and their peoples was completely resolved once and for all through the 1965 bilateral pact that settled colonial issues.