The South Korean government will set up a public-private body to resolve the issue of compensation for forced wartime labor during Japan's colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula, a local media report said Monday.

The body made up of government officials and experts will be established as early as the end of this month to prevent the liquidation of Japanese corporate assets that plaintiffs in forced labor lawsuits have seized, according to the Seoul Shinmun report.

The plaintiffs are taking steps to realize the liquidation. But Japan has protested to South Korea and warned that liquidating the assets "would invite a grave situation" for both countries.

The body would be a first action by the government of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, who took office on May 10 and called for a future-oriented approach to the bilateral relationship, aimed to resolve the issues stemming from Japan's colonial rule between 1910 and 1945.

Bilateral ties sank to the lowest point in years during the administration of Yoon's predecessor, Moon Jae In, over the forced labor issue and that of Korean women forced to work in Japan's wartime military brothels.

South Korean Supreme Court rulings in 2018 ordered two Japanese companies, Nippon Steel Corp. and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd., to pay damages to Korean plaintiffs for their labor under the Japanese colonial rule.

The companies did not comply with the compensation orders as they heeded the Japanese government's position that the issue of claims stemming from the colonial rule was settled in 1965 under a bilateral accord signed alongside a treaty that established diplomatic ties.

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