Govt proposes foundation to deal with Japan reparations
SEOUL: Proposals for a South Korean foundation to compensate plaintiffs on behalf of Japanese corporate defendants over wartime labour issues would be the best possible option for resolving the matter, South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said during a public hearing.
The public hearing yesterday, hosted by the ministry to discuss wartime labour issues stemming from Japan’s colonial-era rule of the Korean Peninsula, was organized to find a way to compensate South Koreans following 2018 Supreme Court rulings that ordered two Japanese companies to pay damages to the plaintiffs.
Seo Min Jung, the ministry’s Asia Pacific bureau chief, said it is difficult to make the Japanese companies pay damages to the plaintiffs but stressed Japan should pass on its apology and remorse about colonial rule, which it has expressed to South Korea, to future generations.
After the 2018 rulings, South Korean courts have ordered the liquidation of local assets seized from the two Japanese companies, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd and Nippon Steel Corp, which were sued over alleged forced labour during the 1910-1945 colonial period.
The hearing was cohosted by the ministry and the head of the South Korea-Japan Parliamentarians’ Union, a bipartisan group.
But several plaintiffs have expressed their opposition to the government’s idea, as a civic group on the same day held a protest against the public hearing, saying that it does not reflect the forced labour victims’ opinions.
The civic group supporting plaintiffs living in the southeastern city of Gwangju said on Wednesday it decided not to participate in the hearing as the victims were excluded from the event, and no information was shared with the organisation about it.
The issue of compensation has contributed to the deterioration of bilateral relations to the worst level in decades.
Japan maintains that all claims stemming from its colonial rule were settled “completely and finally” under a 1965 bilateral agreement.
But South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol has pledged to take a futureoriented approach toward Japan since he assumed office last May, in an effort to improve bilateral ties.
Mr Yoon met with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in November on the fringes of regional summits held in Cambodia, with the two agreeing to work toward an early settlement of issues over wartime labour. They also agreed to work more on disagreements around claims about South Korean women who worked in Japan’s military brothels during the war.