South Korean victims of Japan's wartime forced labor will soon request that assets seized from Japanese firms following a Supreme Court ruling be sold off.
 
The victims' legal representatives said in a press release on Tuesday that they will soon apply for the sell-off, saying that Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is “hiding” behind the Japanese government and dismissing the plaintiffs' demands.

Mitsubishi Heavy is one of the Japanese firms ordered by South Korea’s top court last year to compensate victims of colonial-era forced labor. The company's Korea-based assets have been seized due to non-compliance with the ruling.

The legal representatives said they told the firm that a sell-off is unavoidable if it doesn't accept calls for negotiations by Monday, but that the calls was ignored.

They said it is deeply regrettable that a resolution through dialogue has thus far been unachievable. They added that three plaintiffs have died just this year and others are fighting diseases and other ailments.