South Korea plans to pay Japan forced labor victims
SEOUL (AP) – South Korea took a step toward improving ties with historical rival Japan by announcing a plan yesterday to raise domestic funds and avoid Japanese money to compensate Koreans who are still waiting to receive damages for slave labor during Tokyo’s 35-year colonial rule.
The plan reflects conservative President Yoon Suk-yeol’s determination to mend frayed ties with Japan and solidify security cooperation among Seoul, Tokyo and Washington to better cope with North Korea’s nuclear threats.
US President Joe Biden hailed the plan as a new chapter of cooperation and partnership between two of the United States’ closest allies and said he looked forward to enhancing trilateral ties.
Yoon and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida “are taking a critical step to forge a future for the Korean and Japanese people that is safer, more secure, and more prosperous,” Biden said in a statement.
The plan, however, drew immediate backlash from former forced laborers and their supporters. They demand direct compensation from the Japanese companies and a fresh apology from the Japanese government.
Ties between Seoul and Tokyo have long been complicated by grievances related to Japan’s brutal rule of the Korean Peninsula from 1910 to 1945, when hundreds of thousands of Koreans were mobilized as forced laborers for Japanese companies, or sex slaves at Tokyo’s military-run brothels during World War II.
Many forced laborers are already dead and survivors are in their 90s.
Of the 15 victims involved in 2018 South Korean court rulings that ordered Japanese companies Nippon Steel and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to compensate them, only three are still alive.
South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin told a televised news conference the victims would be compensated through a local state-run foundation that would be funded by civilian donations. He said South Korea and Japan were at a “new window of opportunity” to overcome their conflicts and build future-oriented relations.
“If we compare it to a glass of water, I think that the glass is more than half-full with water. We expect that the glass will be further filled moving forward based on Japan’s sincere response,” Park said.
Park didn’t elaborate on how the foundation would be financed. But in January, Shim Kyu-sun, chairperson of the Foundation for Victims of Forced Mobilization by Imperial Japan, which would be handling the reparations, said the funds would come from South Korean companies that benefited from a 1965 Seoul-Tokyo treaty that normalized their relations.