TOKYO, January 1 -- Japan seeks talks with South Korea over court decision on WWII forced labor. A South Korean court said on Wednesday it would freeze the local assets of a Japanese steel company involved in a compensation dispute with wartime Korean laborers, leading to a diplomatic spat between the two neighbors. Japan quickly called the asset seizure "extremely regrettable" and said Tokyo will push for talks with Seoul on the issue. In a landmark ruling in October, South Korea's top court ordered Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp to pay 100 million won ($88,000) each to four plaintiffs forced to work for the company when Japan colonized the Korean Peninsula during 1910-45. But the company had refused to follow that ruling, siding with Japan's long-held position that all colonial-era compensation issues were settled by a 1965 treaty that restored diplomatic relations between the two governments. Japanese officials said they could take the issue to the International Court of Justice. On Wednesday, the Daegu District Court's branch office in the southeastern city of Pohang said it had approved a request by lawyers for the plaintiffs to seize Korean assets held by the Japanese company as it was refusing to compensate the former laborers. The Japanese company holds 2.34 million shares, or around $9.7 million, in its joint venture in Pohang with South Korean steelmaker POSCO. In Tokyo, Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said that Japan has "grave concern over the development". Seoul's Foreign Ministry said it has no immediate comment on Suga's statement.
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