Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries has accepted a request for consultation presented by South Korean victims of Japan's wartime forced labor.

In November, Korea's Supreme Court issued a ruling ordering the Japanese firm to compensate the wartime victims.

The legal defense team of the plaintiffs on Friday visited Mitsubishi's Tokyo headquarters and handed the letter of request for consultation.

Two senior officials of the company came out and listened to the lawyers and received the document.

This contrasts an earlier response from Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Corporation when a similar request was delivered and the company told the Korean delegation to leave the papers with a security guard.

The victims have asked Mitsubishi to deliver a response by March first, which marks the centennial of the 1919 Independence Movement against colonial Japan.

South Korea and Japan are seeking foreign ministerial talks on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum opening in Davos, Switzerland on Tuesday, which will mark the first bilateral meeting since the Supreme Court ruling.