South Korea's Supreme Court on Thursday rejected appeals by Japanese machinery maker Nachi-Fujikoshi Corp. and upheld decisions by lower courts ordering the company to pay damages to South Korean plaintiffs for wartime labor.

The rulings in the three separate cases against Nachi-Fujikoshi come after the top court made similar decisions on disputes related to forced labor that occurred during Japan's colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula, including against Japanese steelmaker Nippon Steel Corp. earlier this month.

Thursday's decisions were made amid an improvement in South Korea-Japan relations since Seoul announced a plan for resolving the wartime labor issue in March last year.

==Kyodo

© Kyodo News International, Inc., source Newswire