Japan will compensate former leprosy sufferers in South Korea who were forced into isolation during Tokyo's colonial rule, South Korea's Foreign Ministry said Friday.

The Japanese government will pay $69,000 each to 64 people forced to live in a sanatorium on a small island, bringing to 155 the number of South Korean beneficiaries of such compensation, the ministry said.

Japan's Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry confirmed the number, adding that 282 South Korean victims were yet to receive compensation.

Japan ruled the Korean Peninsula as a colony from 1910 to 1945, and Taiwan from 1895 to 1945.