Korea, Japan reach tentative agreement on Unesco registration for Sado mines

Diplomacy

Published: 26 Jul. 2024, 17:56 Updated: 26 Jul. 2024, 18:48

Korea, Japan reach tentative agreement on Unesco registration for Sado mines

The photo, taken by Prof. Seo Kyung-deok, shows a tunnel inside Japan's Sado mines that the country is trying to register as a Unesco World Heritage Stie. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

The Korean and Japanese governments reached a tentative agreement to register Japan's divisive Sado mines, a site associated with the large-scale forced labor of Koreans, as a Unesco World Heritage site.

The agreement was reached after Japan agreed to inform visitors about the history, reportedly through a facility near the Sado mines. The Unesco registration is expected to be confirmed on Saturday.

“After a difficult process, Korea and Japan have reached the final stage of the agreement,” a Korean Foreign Ministry official familiar with the matter told reporters Friday on condition of anonymity. “Unless something unexpected happens within the next 24 hours, the Sado mines is expected to be registered as a World Heritage site.”

The Sado mines in Niigata Prefecture in Japan, primarily former gold mines, are linked to wartime atrocities in which approximately 1,500 Koreans were forcibly mobilized to procure war materials during World War II.

Japan is seeking Unesco World Heritage status for the site, but controversy arose when it limited the heritage timeline to the 16th to mid-19th centuries — excluding the 1910-1945 Japanese colonial period and thereby circumventing the forced labor issue and solely emphasizing the mines' value. Korea has been negotiating with Japan, arguing that the mines' full history, including forced labor, should be reflected.

The Korean ministry official explained that its government had agreed to the Sado mines' registration because “Japan promised to reflect the whole history” and “has already taken practical measures.”

In 2015, Japan registered Hashima Island, or the Battleship Island — another site linked to the forced labor of Koreans in Nagasaki Prefecture — along with six other sites as Unesco World Heritage, promising to detail its history of forced labor. Despite the promise, Japan set up an information center in Tokyo, not Nagasaki, highlighting only the achievements of its industrial revolution.

“We did not just receive a promise of implementation from Japan; we agreed on the specifics and prompted practical measures,” the official said. Specific details of the “practical measures” have not yet been disclosed.

The International Council on Monuments and Sites (Icomos), an advisory body to Unesco, recommended withholding the Sado mines' designation in June and advised Tokyo to display the full history on site.

Japan's Asahi Shimbun reported Friday that the Japanese government had decided to “display the history of workers, including Koreans, at the site,” leading to the agreement between the two nations.

Following the news of the government's agreement, the liberal party criticized the move as “humiliating diplomacy.”

“While it's outrageous enough to register a site of forced labor as a World Heritage Site, it is unacceptable that the Yoon Suk Yeol administration agrees to Japan's attempt to erase historical injustices,” said Democratic Party spokesperson Hwang Jung-a in a written briefing Friday.

The registration of the Sado mines as a Unesco World Heritage site will be finalized Saturday at the 46th session of the Unesco World Heritage Committee, which is currently being held in New Delhi. While the inscription requires a two-thirds majority of the 21 World Heritage Committee members, it is customary for the decision to be unanimous.

Meanwhile, the Korean Foreign Ministry acknowledged that the agreement between the two countries had been made without input from descendants of the Sado mines' victims.

“Regrettably, due to the sensitive nature of the issue, the progress of the negotiations was never disclosed,” the ministry official said.

Four descendants of forced labor victims sent an appeal to the Unesco Committee on Thursday requesting that the “blood, sweat and tears” of their labored fathers be recorded when the mines are registered as a World Heritage Site.

BY SEO JI-EUN [seo.jieun1@joongang.co.kr]