PPP slams DP's demand to withdraw compensation plan

People Power Party floor leader Joo Ho-young, center, speaks at a party meeting at the National Assembly in western Seoul on Tuesday. [NEWS1]

Political wrangling over the forced labor issue continued in Korea on Tuesday as members of the People Power Party (PPP) protested a resolution passed by the Democratic Party (DP) demanding revocation of the government plan to compensate the victims of forced labor in Korea.

“The committee meeting hosted by the DP members and its results are moot, as the meeting was held illegally, without a consensus among the members of the committee” said Joo Ho-young, floor leader of the PPP, in a party meeting hosted at the National Assembly on Tuesday.

He was referring to the Assembly’s Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee meeting hosted unilaterally by DP members on Monday.

The DP members, holding the majority in the committee, hosted the meeting without the PPP members on Monday and passed a resolution calling on the Yoon Suk Yeol government to revoke its plan to compensate the forced labor victims.

The Foreign Ministry formalized earlier this month a plan to step in between the Korean victims and Japanese corporations embroiled in lawsuits and compensate the victims in place of the Japanese corporations.

The plan would create a fund at a foundation in Korea, which would receive donations from Korean companies that once benefitted from Japanese money Korea received as compensation after Seoul and Tokyo normalized ties in 1965, to pay victims of forced labor.

There are 15 victims embroiled in lawsuits with Japanese companies, three of whom have rejected the government proposal.

“We know the government proposal cannot satisfy everyone in Korea,” Joo said. “But it is the best solution possible at this point where Korea and Japan are trying to normalize their diplomatic ties after the Supreme Court rulings. In order to counter the nuclear threat from North Korea, Korea-U.S.-Japan and Korea-Japan cooperation is imperative.”

Sitting at the Supreme Court in Korea is a case on liquidation of Japanese corporate assets to compensate the Korean victims of forced labor.

The case dates back to landmark rulings by the court in 2018 in which it ordered Nippon Steel and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to compensate the victims, acknowledging the illegality of Japan’s 1919-45 colonial rule and recognizing that individuals' rights to compensation had not expired.

Japan protested the decision, claiming that all compensation issues related to colonial rule were resolved in a treaty with Korea in 1965.

In that deal, Japan give Korea $300 million in economic aid and $500 million in loans.

Korean companies that benefitted from the aid and loans include Posco.

Tokyo responded positively to the Yoon administration’s latest proposal on the forced labor issue, extending an invitation to Yoon to visit Japan for a summit meeting with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida from Thursday to Friday.

The summit is the first taking place in either country since 2011.

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