The Korean victims of Japan's wartime forced labor have strongly protested Seoul's plan to compensate them through a government-led fund instead of seeking direct payment from responsible Japanese companies.

At a press conference in the southwestern city of Gwangju on Monday, Yang Geum-deok, one of the three surviving victims, said she will not take what she called a "distribution of alms." The other two surviving victims also reportedly oppose the plan.

Civic groups and the victims' legal representatives held a separate press conference in Seoul, accusing the government of incapacitating the Supreme Court's rulings in 2018 that ordered two Japanese firms, Nippon Steel and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, to make the payments.

The absence of a direct apology from Tokyo and any financial liability prompted those opposed to accuse the government of giving the Japanese firms involved in forced labor immunity from their judicial responsibility.

The victims are expected to continue pursuing the court-ordered liquidation of the firms' assets in South Korea to cover the compensation payments in the face of defiance by the companies.

The legal representatives said that of the 15 victims awarded compensation by the Supreme Court, only four bereaved families have consented to the government’s plan.