South Korea presented a plan on Monday to compensate a group of citizens of that country subjected to forced labor in Japanese factories during World War II.
Its objective is to resolve a historical conflict that has damaged relations between the two countries for many years.
However, the decision has generated a strong controversy in South Korea, to the point that some of the plaintiffs refuse to accept the compensation.
This Monday, South Korean and Japanese authorities described the agreement as a great advance, while victims and opponents criticized it, considering that it exempts Japan from its responsibility towards the victims.
Some 150,000 Koreans were forced to work in factories and mines in Japan during World War II (1939-1945).
At that time, Japan controlled the entire Korean peninsula, territory it colonized from 1910 until its defeat in war in 1945.
The agreement consists of South Korean companies contributing money to a public fund to compensate the victims, something that bothers part of the victims and their families, who consider that the compensation should be paid by the Japanese companies involved.
The Japanese government welcomed Seoul’s decision not to ask Japanese entities to pay compensation, something that previous South Korean administrations had been demanding.
Protesters rallied outside the Foreign Ministry in central Seoul on Monday to condemn the plan.
An obstacle in the relationship
In 2018, the South Korean Supreme Court recognized the right of 15 South Korean victims of forced labor to receive compensation from the Nippon Steel steelmaker and the heavy industry division of Mitsubishi.
The two Japanese companies refused to abide by the ruling, causing unrest in South Korean society, straining relations between the two countries and opening the door to the possibility that the Seoul authorities could expropriate assets from the local subsidiaries of both corporations.
In retaliation, the Japanese government has imposed export controls to South Korea on three key materials for chip and display manufacturing and has removed its neighbor from its list of preferred trading partners.
Seoul also announced this Monday, together with the presentation of the plan, that it will withdraw its protest before the World Trade Organization (WTO) for that boycott and that both countries will initiate bilateral consultations to normalize the situation in customs.
South Korea’s president, the conservative Yoon Suk-yeol elected last year, has tried to mend relations with Japan.
The United States has pressured the two countries, both key allies in the region, to improve relations.
US President Joe Biden on Monday called the plan “innovative.”
Seoul says South Korean companies that benefited from a 1965 postwar treaty must pay for donations.
The victims
The $3 million fund will be distributed among the families of the original 15 plaintiffs, only three of whom are still alive.
All three have announced that they will refuse to accept the money.
South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin justified the proposal by saying that breaking “the vicious circle” with Japan over this issue is a matter of national interest.
He indicated his wish that Tokyo “responds positively, with voluntary contributions from Japanese companies and a comprehensive apology,” South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported.
“If we compare it with a glass of water, I think it is more than half,” he told the press.
Japan’s Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi also praised the plan, saying his government will allow the country’s companies to join the public fund.
And he expressed his hope that from now on the political and cultural exchanges between the two neighbors will be expanded.
However, groups representing the plaintiffs in South Korea criticized the project.
“The Korean government grants immunity from its legal obligations to the accused Japanese companies,” the lawyers for the victims said in a statement.
“I will not accept money that looks like begging,” protested one victim, Yang Geum-deok, according to Yonhap.
He argued that those involved in Japan “should apologize first and then work on everything else.”
The main leader of the opposition Democratic Party of South Korea, Lee Jae-myung, called the proposal “the biggest humiliation and stain in the history of diplomacy.”
It is not clear whether the Japanese companies mentioned in the 2018 court ruling will make voluntary contributions.
The 1965 agreement
Mitsubishi and Nippon Steel did not comment on the new plan, both maintaining that the issue of wartime compensation was settled with the 1965 treaty.
That agreement included a reparation package of about $800 million in grants and advantageous loans from Japan to South Korea.
Tokyo maintains that the deal settled all claims related to the colonial period, but has been disputed by South Korean governments in recent decades.
The new plan is expected to allow the two countries to overcome a major hurdle in their relationship and thereby further cooperate on security at a time when threats from North Korea and China are increasing.
Bilateral disputes dating back to colonization also include the sensitive issue of compensation for Korean women sexually enslaved by Japan during World War II.
In 2015, an agreement to resolve the dispute between the so-called “comfort women” was signed with Japan’s apology and the creation of a 1 billion yen ($7.3 million) fund for survivors.
However, three years later the diplomatic dispute was reopened when Seoul dissolved the fund on the grounds that not enough was done for the victims.
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BBC-NEWS-SRC: https://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias-internacional-64869330, IMPORTING DATE: 2023-03-06 18:40:07
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