Anchor: South Korea held a memorial on Monday to honor Koreans subjected to forced labor under Japanese colonial rule at the Sado mines, the newly listed UNESCO World Heritage site in Japan. Seoul skipped Japan’s ceremony the previous day amid reports that Tokyo’s representative had visited a controversial war shrine.
Choi You Sun reports.

Report: The South Korean government held its own ceremony in Japan on Monday to commemorate the Koreans forced to work at Japan’s Sado mines during World War II, after boycotting a memorial event that Japan hosted the previous day.

South Korea held the event Monday morning at a site that used to be a lodging for Korean forced labor victims on Sado Island in Niigata Prefecture. 

The event was attended by South Korean Ambassador to Japan Park Cheol-hee and nine members of victims’ families. 

South Korea boycotted the Sunday ceremony in an apparent response to Tokyo’s plans, announced Friday, to send the foreign ministry’s Parliamentary Vice-Minister Akiko 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.

During UNESCO’s review of the mine’s World Heritage listing in July, Tokyo promised to hold an annual memorial ceremony for the Korean and Japanese laborers.

Seoul gave its consent to the listing on the condition that Tokyo take steps to inform international visitors about the full history of the site, including the annual memorial and an exhibit describing the harsh working conditions Koreans endured there.

During Sunday’s ceremony, Ikuina delivered a speech that notably omitted any reference to “forced labor” by Koreans. 

Japan expressed regret over South Korea’s decision not to attend its memorial event.

At a press conference on Monday, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said Tokyo’s decision to send Ikuina was made after a comprehensive review and that there were no issues of concern.
Choi You Sun, KBS World Radio News.