Mitsubishi Heavy Industries has appealed a South Korean district court order for the sale of its assets to enforce an earlier ruling to compensate South Korean victims of Japan's wartime forced labor.

According to judicial sources on Wednesday, the Japanese firm lodged an immediate appeal against the Daejeon District Court’s order last month that the firm's trademark and patent rights, worth some 500 million won, be sold.

The ruling had come at the request of two plaintiffs in their 90s. It marked the first time a South Korean court ordered the sale of a Japanese company's assets in relation to wartime forced labor.

The Supreme Court had ordered the Japanese firm in November 2018 to pay damages of 80 to 150 million won each to four victims or their surviving families. 

Since then, the firm has lodged multiple appeals for both the Supreme Court order and the district court order.