The government says it will not send a delegation to Japan’s Sado mine memorial ceremony set for Sunday.
 
The South Korean foreign ministry on Saturday announced the decision in an apparent response to Tokyo's plan to send its Parliamentary Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs Akiko Ikuina to the event.
 
Ikuina in 2022 visited the controversial Yasukuni shrine, which honors Japan’s war dead, including Class-A war criminals. 

The South Korean foreign ministry said that it came to the decision as there is no sufficient time to iron out differences between the two sides, without specifying the nature of their disagreement. 

Seoul has come under fire because it appears to have been unaware of Ikuina’s visit to the shrine, despite a series of consultations with Tokyo on who should attend Sunday’s event.

Japan announced earlier this week that the ceremony will be held on Sado Island, off its west coast, to keep its promise to honor the victims who were forced into hard labor at the mine complex during Japan's colonial occupation of Korea.

The event was part of the condition for South Korea's acceptance for the site's designation as a UNESCO World Heritage site.