Forced labor victims refuse third-party compensation

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Forced labor victims refuse third-party compensation

Forced labor victim Yang Geum-deok speaks at the National Assembly's Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee meeting on Monday. [KIM SEONG-RYONG]

Forced labor victim Yang Geum-deok speaks at the National Assembly's Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee meeting on Monday. [KIM SEONG-RYONG]

Less than a week before the breakthrough summit meeting between Korea and Japan, several forced labor victims are saying they will not take third-party compensation from the fund recently announced by the Korean government to resolve the thorny issue of Japan's use of Korean forced labor during the colonial era.
 
Kim Seong-joo, Yang Geom-deok and Lee Chun-sik, victims of forced labor by Japan during the 1910-45 Japanese occupation of Korea, formally announced in a statement on Monday they are refusing the Korean government proposal to have Korean companies compensate them instead of Japanese ones.
 
They issued the statement to the Foundation for Victims of Forced Mobilization by Imperial Japan, the foundation that has been designated by the government to create the fund to compensate the victims.
 
A total of 15 forced labor victims are embroiled in legal cases against Japanese companies.  
 
The other 12 have not issued a statement in reaction to the Korean government proposal as of Monday.
 
The Foreign Ministry formally announced its plan on March 6 to create a fund from donations by Korean companies to compensate forced labor victims in place of the Japanese companies sued by the victims.
 
The Supreme Court ordered Nippon Steel and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to compensate the victims in landmark rulings in 2018. 
 
The companies refused to budge, and the victims filed another case to liquidate Japanese corporate assets.
 
The solution was a gesture to demonstrate the Korean government's resolve to settle the years-long dispute with Japan over the forced labor issue, according to the presidential office.
 
The Korean government has also repeatedly emphasized that a “sincere gesture” from Japan will be needed for the solution to work, including donations to the Korean fund from Japanese companies.
 
“Even if I starve to death, I will still not take that money,” said Yang speaking at the National Assembly's Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee meeting on Monday, referring to the Korean fund.
 
“I was tricked into working in Japan,” she continued. “The Japanese told me at the time that I would be able to attend middle school when I go to Japan, so I went there, only to find out that there was no such plan but only one to put me to hard labor.”
 
Political wrangling in Korea over the forced labor issue continued Monday.
 
“The National Assembly should not sit still and watch when the administration is announcing a one-sided policy and getting on board with a summit meeting with Japan, once again shutting out the voices of the victims,” said Lee Jae-jung, a representative of the Democratic Party (DP), speaking at the Assembly’s Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee meeting she hosted on Monday.
 
All members of the conservative People Power Party (PPP) boycotted the meeting Monday.
 
The DP holds a majority in the 21-member committee.
 
Park Byeong-seug, a DP lawmaker, said it was “regretful” for the PPP members to skip the meeting, which he said “could have shown Japan that there are voices within Korea in strong opposition” to the solution on the forced labor issue proposed by the Korean government last week.
 
The DP members of the committee also passed a resolution on Monday calling on the Yoon Suk Yeol government to rescind the proposal.
 
After the ministry’s proposal last week, Tokyo invited Yoon for a summit with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida this Thursday and Friday, the first to take place in either country since 2011.  
 

BY JEONG JIN-WOO, ESTHER CHUNG [chung.juhee@joongang.co.kr]
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