The Japanese government has refused to deliver South Korean court documents regarding Japan’s wartime forced labor to a plaintiff Japanese firm. 

According to legal representatives for the South Korean victims of Japan’s wartime crimes on Tuesday, Tokyo’s Foreign Ministry returned last month documents it received from South Korea’s National Court Administration in January. 

The documents include the ruling by the Pohang branch of a Daegu court in January to seize the South Korean assets of Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Corporation, following the South Korean Supreme Court’s order on the firm last year to compensate its victims. 

The Japanese government did not explain why it was returning the documents without delivering them to the Japanese company. 

The South Korean legal representatives said Tokyo's behavior was a violation of the Hague Conventions concerning delivery of court rulings.