Japan’s Sado mines, a controversial site linked to wartime forced labor which included Koreans, has been designated as a World Heritage Site, after promises from Tokyo to display historical facts about the complex.

The UNESCO World Heritage Committee(WHC) approved the inscription at its meeting in New Delhi, India on Saturday, with unanimous support from its 21 member states. Both Korea and Japan are members of the rotating committee this year.

Seoul had previously protested the designation for the former gold and silver mines located on Sado Island in Niigata Prefecture, arguing that Japan initially intended to gloss over the part of its history involving Koreans who were forced to toil there during World War II, when Korea was under Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule.

Takehiro Kano, Japan’s ambassador to UNESCO, disclosed during the meeting that Tokyo will honor its pledge made to the WHC and sincerely commemorates all laborers, including those from the Korean Peninsula, who worked in the Sado Mines.

The Japanese diplomat stated that Japan has, in an effort to resolve differences among committee members, already installed displays and exhibitions to detail the harsh conditions under which the laborers were forced to work, at Aikawa Folk Museum, located five kilometers away from the mines.