Japan held an event to commemorate Japanese and Korean laborers who worked at the Sado mines during World War II, but South Korea boycotted the event. 

The memorial event started at 1 p.m. Sunday on Sado Island in Niigata Prefecture, attended by Parliamentary Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs Akiko Ikuina, local government officials and representatives of civic groups. 

About 100 people were supposed to attend, but the absence of the South Korean delegation left some 30 seats vacant. 

Ikuina delivered a speech during the ceremony but did not use the term “forced labor,” even though Koreans were forced to work there.
 
South Korea and Japan agreed to hold the event before the mine complex on Sado Island was added to UNESCO’s World Heritage list earlier this year.
 
South Korea decided not to send a delegation on Saturday in an apparent response to Tokyo’s plans to send Ikuina to the event as its representative. 

In 2022 Ikuina visited the controversial Yasukuni shrine, which honors Japan’s war dead, including Class-A war criminals.