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The South Korean government announced Monday a compensation plan for victims of forced labor during the war with Japan. According to Seoul, there are 780,000 Koreans who were forced to work by the Japanese during the 35 years of occupation, between 1910 and 1945. In this way, South Korea and Japan are trying to close one of the thorniest chapters between the two countries.
Japan and South Korea would be about to resolve a historic conflict that has poisoned relations between the two neighbors for 70 years. After months of negotiations and speculation, the South Korean government finally presented a program to compensate victims of forced labor on Monday.
“The Japan Forced Labor Victims Support Foundation will pay the compensation and deferred interest to the plaintiffs provided for in the three judgments filed with the Supreme Court in 2018, in order to support and relieve the survivors and family members of the forced labor victims. victims,” Foreign Minister Park Jin said.
The Seoul government’s new plan is to use a local foundation to receive donations from South Korean companies that benefited from Japan’s 1965 reparations package to compensate the victims.
South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin said he hopes Japan will respond “positively” to the decision and that there will be a voluntary contribution from Japanese companies.
Some 780,000 Koreans were conscripted into forced labor during the Japanese occupation, according to South Korean data. This record does not include women subjected to sexual slavery by Japanese soldiers. According to historians, up to 200,000 mainly Korean women were forced into prostitution in Japanese military brothels.
Japan will not apologize again
Japan’s Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi said his government “appreciates” the South Korean announcement as a way to “restore healthy relations.” But he also hinted that Japan will not issue an apology again on this issue.
Tokyo insists that a 1965 treaty, under which the two countries restored diplomatic relations with an $800 million reparations package in grants and soft loans, settled all colonial-era claims.
The White House celebrated “a revolutionary new chapter of cooperation and partnership” between the two countries. The head of US diplomacy, Antony Blinken, applauded the plan, saying he was “inspired by the work that (both countries) have done to advance their bilateral relations.”
Victims’ associations criticize the plan
The decision to pay compensation through donations from private companies through a South Korean public foundation has been widely criticized by the 15 victims’ organizations.
They ask for a public apology and a direct contribution from the two Japanese companies. But Seoul plans to extend this compensation system to upcoming court decisions. It is a way of trying to bury once and for all a case that frequently reappears in South Korea.
(With AFP)
