Resolution on forced labor before summit with Japan: Official

Diplomacy

Published: 30 Jan. 2023, 19:29 Updated: 30 Jan. 2023, 19:43

Resolution on forced labor before summit with Japan: Official

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida speaks during a news conference in Washington on Jan. 14. [AP/YONHAP]

A resolution on the forced labor issue, an objective that the Foreign Ministry in Seoul has prioritized in recent months, is likely a prerequisite for a summit between President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, said a high-ranking official of the Foreign Ministry on Monday.

“We will have to approach the issue on all levels, as there are discussions that should be held on the director-level, and others that can only be held on a higher level,” said a senior-ranking official of the ministry in speaking with a group of reporters in Seoul on Monday.

The official added that a summit between Yoon and Kishida “might happen once this issue is resolved.”

Earlier on Monday, the main negotiators between Korea and Japan on the forced labor issue, Seo Min-jung, the director general for Asia and Pacific affairs at Korea's Foreign Ministry, and Funakoshi Takehiro, director-general for Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau of Japanese Foreign Ministry, met in Seoul to discuss the latest on the historical dispute that has soured relations for years.

"The meeting was held to speed up our cooperation between the two foreign ministries for a resolution on the forced labor issue," said Seo in speaking with the press after the meeting.

Seo Min-jung, the director general for Asia and Pacific affairs at Korea's Foreign Ministry, at the ministry in Seoul on Monday after her meeting with Funakoshi Takehiro, director-general for Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau of Japanese Foreign Ministry, on the forced labor issue. [NEWS1]

In the meeting, Seo was said to have conveyed the demands from the Korean victims of forced labor and their relatives to the Japanese corporations and the Japanese government.

“These include a direct apology from the Japanese corporations to the victims, as well as a visible decision from the Japanese government to live up to its previously conveyed apology on the issue,” said the official of the Foreign Ministry in Seoul.

Seo and Funakoshi did not discuss on Monday Japanese export restrictions on Korea, according to the Foreign Ministry, largely considered in Korea as an act of economic retaliation by Japan following Korean Supreme Court’s landmark rulings in 2018 on the issue.

The Supreme Court in Korea on Oct. 30, 2018 ordered Nippon Steel and Sumitomo Metal, renamed Nippon Steel, to pay 100 million won ($81,403) each to Korean victims of Japanese forced labor during World War II.

The Supreme Court made a similar ruling on Nov. 29, 2018 against Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.

Japan protested the decision, claiming that all compensation issues related to its colonial rule were resolved through a treaty with Korea in 1965. Japan gave Korea $300 million in economic aid and $500 million in loans with that treaty.

Since the court rulings in 2018, Japan removed Korea from its "white list" of trading partners and instituted export restrictions that hurt Korea's semiconductor industry.

Both Nippon Steel and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries refused to comply with the top court's decisions, and the victims filed another case requesting the liquidation of assets of two Japanese companies to compensate forced labor victims. The Supreme Court in Korea has yet to rule on the latest case.

Yang Geum-deok, a forced labor victim, speaks at a press conference in Gwangju on Dec. 13, 2022. [YONHAP]

The Foreign Ministry in Seoul, stepping into the role of a negotiator between Japan and the victims since the start of the Yoon administration last May, held several director-level talks with Japan on the issue and with some legal representatives of victims.

The ministry’s proposal to the victims on having a third party compensate the victims other than Japanese corporations was protested by victims involved in the legal suits with Japanese corporates.

“There are still some gaps in the way Japan sees the issue and the victims do, so that will have to be something we continue to work on,” said the Foreign Ministry official.

BY ESTHER CHUNG [chung.juhee@joongang.co.kr]