South Korea looks to resolve forced wartime labour issue with Japan
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South Korean opposition lawmakers and supporters of the victims of Japan's wartime forced labour protesting in Seoul on Thursday.
PHOTO: AFP
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SEOUL - South Korea said on Thursday it was considering compensating victims over Japan’s forced wartime labour without the direct participation of Japanese companies, as Seoul seeks closer ties with Tokyo to counter North Korean aggression.
South Korea and Japan are key regional security allies of the United States, but bilateral ties have long been strained over Tokyo’s brutal 1910-1945 colonial rule of the Korean peninsula.
Around 780,000 Koreans were conscripted into forced labour by Japan during the 35-year occupation, according to data from Seoul, not including women forced into sexual slavery by Japanese troops.
Ms Seo Min-jung, a senior official at South Korea’s Foreign Affairs Ministry, said at a public hearing on Thursday that the idea would be that victims could “receive compensation through a third party”.
Local reports have said the fund in discussion would use donations from South Korean companies – which benefited from a reparations package from Japan – without the participation of Japanese companies.
But the idea has drawn strong protest from victims’ groups, who want financial compensation and an apology directly from the Japanese companies involved.
They had won cases on this issue in 2018, when Seoul’s Supreme Court ordered some Japanese companies to pay compensation
Mr Lim Jae-sung, a lawyer representing the victims, said: “Please tell us why the government is rushing this proposal that is opposed by the victims.”
The public hearing comes as the conservative Yoon Suk-yeol government moves to boost Seoul-Tokyo ties,
His administration is seeking to find a way out of the years-long historical dispute with Korea’s former coloniser.
Tokyo insists a 1965 treaty, which saw the two countries restore diplomatic ties with a reparation package of about US$800 million in grants and cheap loans, settled all claims between the two countries over the 35-year colonial rule period. AFP
