S Korea court orders Japanese firm to pay for forced labour

A Seoul court yesterday dismissed a Japanese machinery maker's appeal against an order that it pay 17 South Korean women 100 million won ($89,000) each for forced wartime labour, the latest in a series of rulings raising tensions between the neighbours.

South Korea and its former colonial power Japan are both US allies who have to contend with nuclear-armed North Korea and a rising China.

But their relationship is soured by issues of past history, including Koreans forced to work at Japanese firms' factories during the Second World War, and a territorial row over Seoul-controlled islets also claimed by Japan.