SEOUL — South Korea said on Monday (March 6) that its companies would compensate people forced to work under Japan's 1910-1945 occupation of Korea, in a bid to improve poor relations that have impeded trade and co-operation between the two countries. The proposal was welcomed in Tokyo but faced immediate backlash from some victims and South Korea's main opposition party,...
South Korea President Yoon Suk Yeol may visit Japan for talks with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida later this month.SEOUL — South Korea said on Monday that its companies would compensate people forced to work under Japan's 1910-1945 occupation of Korea, in a bid to improve poor relations that have impeded trade and co-operation between the two countries.
Under the plan, South Korea would compensate former forced labourers through an existing public foundation funded by private-sector companies, Foreign Minister Park Jin told a briefing. Japanese companies will not be expected to make any payments under the plan, but would not be blocked from donating if they want, said Japan's Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi.Poor relations between the two have been a point of concern for the US, which is seeking to present a more unified front with its allies against the rising power of China and threats from North Korea's expanding missile and nuclear arsenal.
When Seoul first raised the proposal in January, it sparked 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.“It’s a complete victory by Japan, which has said it cannot pay a single yen on the forced labour issue,” Lim Jae-sung, a lawyer for several victims, said in a Facebook post on Sunday, citing initial media reports of the deal.
Two of the companies ordered by South Korean courts to make restitution, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Nippon Steel Corp, declined to comment on the agreement, referring to their long-held stance that the issue of compensating wartime labourers had been resolved under the 1965 treaty that normalised relations between South Korea and Japan.
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