JAPAN'S ACTIONS during the second world war cast a long shadow, especially in South Korea. Only in 1965, twenty years after Japan's colonisation of the Korean peninsula ended, did the two countries agree to re-establish relations. They have been thorny ever since. A serious spat started in the autumn when the Supreme Court in Seoul upheld judgments in the lower courts against two Japanese firms, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp, obliging the pair to pay compensation to South Koreans forced to work for them during the war. More such cases are coming through the courts.
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