The government of South Korea has announced a plan to resolve a long-running dispute over compensation for people forced to work in Japanese factories and mines during World War II.
Monday’s plan, which immediately drew protests in South Korea but was hailed as “historic” by the United States, comes as South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol seeks to restore ties with Japan as North Korea is accelerating its nuclear and missile programs.
Unveiling the plan, South Korean foreign minister Park Jin said the former workers, most of whom are now in their 90s, will be compensated by a public foundation funded by private sector companies. rather than by the Japanese companies involved in the forced labour.
The South Korean government had first put forward the proposal in January, sparking a backlash from victims and their families because it did not include contributions from Japanese companies, including those ordered by South Korean courts to pay reparations, such as Nippon Steel and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.
About a dozen protesters demonstrated when Park made the announcement.
“It’s a complete victory for Japan, which has said it cannot pay a single yen for the forced labor issue,” Lim Jae-sung, an attorney for several victims, said in a Facebook post on Sunday, citing the first media reports about the deal. .
The largest opposition party, the Democratic Party, meanwhile denounced the plan as “submissive diplomacy”.
“It’s a day of shame,” An Ho-young, a spokesman for the party, said in a statement. “Japanese companies involved in war crimes were given leniency without even giving in, and the Japanese government succeeded in removing a problem by having the grace to repeat previous statements.”
The issue of forced labor, as well as that of the enslavement of South Korean women in Japanese military brothels, has complicated relations between South Korea and Japan for decades. Japan, which occupied the Korean peninsula from 1910 to 1945, insists that all colonial-era claims were resolved in a bilateral treaty signed in 1965 that normalized ties between the two neighbors.
Under the treaty, South Korea — then ruled by autocratic President Park Chung-hee — received a package of $300 million in economic aid and about $500 million in loans from Japan.
The agreement sparked massive protests across the country, prompting the government to declare martial law.
Grievances continued to plague, and in 1995, then-Japanese Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama issued a statement acknowledging the suffering caused by Japan’s “colonial rule and aggression” and offering a “profound apology”, particularly to the women who were forced into sexual slavery, who are euphemistically known as “comfort women”. Decades later, in 2015, the two countries reached a new settlement over the “comfort women” issue, with Tokyo committing 1 billion yen ($9.23 million) to help the victims.
But in 2018, former South Korean president Moon Jae-in dissolved the fund, saying it was not doing enough to address victims’ concerns.
That same year, the country’s Supreme Court ordered Japan’s Nippon Steel and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to compensate 15 of the forced laborers.
The court verdict created tensions, with Japan restricting the export of high-tech equipment to South Korea and South Koreans launching a boycott of Japanese goods.
Need for cooperation
The South Korean government said Monday its new plan will use a local foundation to accept donations from large South Korean companies, which benefited from Japan’s 1965 reparations package, to compensate victims.
Park, South Korea’s foreign minister, said the plan was key to improving ties between Tokyo and Seoul.
“Cooperation between Korea and Japan is very important in all areas of diplomacy, economics and security amid the current serious international situation and complex global crisis,” he said. “I believe that the vicious circle should be broken for the sake of the people at the national interest level, rather than letting the tense relationship go unattended for a long time.”
He added: “I hope Japan will respond positively to our important decision today with voluntary contributions from Japanese companies and a comprehensive apology.”
For its part, the government of Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said it welcomed the announcement and said it stands by previous official statements expressing regret over Japan’s wartime aggression in Asia, according to the Kyodo news agency.
To accommodate Seoul’s request for a voluntary “sincere response,” Tokyo will allow Japanese companies to donate to the South Korean foundation, the agency reported.
“We welcome this as a step to restore healthy relations between Japan and South Korea,” Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi said.
A Japanese government source close to Kishida told reporters that the US has been pressuring both countries to reconcile, but that the geopolitical threat from North Korea was a major factor driving Yoon’s push for reconciliation.
Washington also welcomed Monday’s announcements.
“We welcome today’s landmark announcements by the governments of the Republic of Korea and Japan regarding the conclusion of discussions on sensitive historical issues. The ROK and Japan are two of the United States’ most important allies, and we are inspired by the work they have done to advance their bilateral relations,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.
“We applaud President Yoon, Prime Minister Kishida and their respective governments for their courage and vision, and call on the international community to join us in praising this momentous achievement,” he added.