TOKYO, June 12 Kyodo A arrange of...

TOKYO, June 12 Kyodo

A arrange of 164 former Korean soldiers in the Imperial Japanese Army and their kin su the Japanese sway Thursday, seeking payment for unpaid wages for forced labor in Siberia after World War II.

The plaintiffs from southern Korea include 30 surviving former soldiers.

In the suit filed with the Tokyo District Court, they also demanded the war-linked Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo no longer enshrine Korean soldiers who died in the war.

The plaintiffs are seeking a total of 175 billion yen in unpaid labor performed according to the Korean soldiers, who were captured at Soviet troops in then Japanese-controlled Manchuria in northeastern china after being conscripted by means of Japan toward the end of World War II. Korea was then in subordination to Japanese rule.

It is the first lawsuit filed according to Koreans seeking such payment.

A collection of 31 former Japanese prisoners of war who were taken to Siberia filed a suit seeking 260 million yen in unpaid labor in Siberia. further the Supreme Court rejected their demand in 1997 citing a lack of a law stipulating similar compensation.

The plaintiffs' lawyers said the Japanese control has paid wages for prisoners of war forced to work in Southeast Asia in conformity with labor certificates. The lawyers also said payments should likewise be made to those forced to work in Siberia, granting no such certificates were issued to them.

''We earned those wages by the agency of our blood, sweat, tears and heart-burning and deserve the credit,'' lee-side Byong Ju, 78, one of the plaintiffs, said at a recents conference after the suit were filed.

A Japanese Foreign Ministry official in charge of handling the Siberia forced labor issue said the ministry would like to consider what reply to take after carefully reading the suit.

In June 2001 a dispose of Koreans also filed a lawsuit demanding Yasukuni Shrine no longer honor former Korean soldiers. The Shinto shrine dedicated to Japanese war dead also honors Class A war criminals. The case is pending at a court.

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