South Korea says it has deal with Japan on forced labour dispute

The US hopes to create a more united front against China and North Korea.

South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin on Monday calls co-operation between South Korea and Japan ‘incredibly important’. Picture: Getty Images

A South Korean fund will compensate Koreans forced to work in Japan during World War II, Seoul said on Monday, part of an arrangement with the Japanese government to resolve differences between the two US allies.

The rapprochement boosts US efforts to foster co-operation between its allies to counter China and North Korea.

South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said the funds would be raised through donations from local companies, after Japan said its companies wouldn’t pay.

Officials said South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol may visit Tokyo this month as part of the deal. South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin said he looked forward to a comprehensive apology from the Japanese side.

“Co-operation between South Korea and Japan is incredibly important on all fronts including diplomacy, economy and defence,” Mr Park said.

For decades, tensions between the two over legacies of Japan’s colonisation of the Korean Peninsula from 1910 to 1945 have hampered US efforts to create a united front against military and economic challenges from Beijing and Pyongyang.

Washington hopes to bring its allies closer in areas such as sharing military intelligence and protecting intellectual property.

Court cases in South Korea in recent years that threatened to result in the liquidation of assets of Japanese companies involved in the forced-labour cases have exacerbated friction between Seoul and Tokyo.

In January, the South Korean Foreign Ministry proposed a plan to compensate former forced labourers through a foundation funded by South Korean businesses that benefited from a 1965 treaty normalising diplomatic relations between Seoul and Tokyo.

As a part of the 1965 agreement, Tokyo paid hundreds of millions of dollars in grants and loans to the South Korean government to resolve compensation-related issues from the colonial period. Most of the money was funnelled into national economic projects rather than given to individual Koreans who suffered under the occupation.

The January draft proposal, which was released at a public hearing, met with fierce opposition from some of the victims and their families. They said compensation to resolve the continuing court cases should come directly from Japan rather than from a South Korea-based foundation, making it uncertain whether the South Korean government’s plan would resolve the issue.

Groups supporting victims held a rally in Seoul on January 31, condemning the South Korean government’s approach. Yang Geum-deok, a 93-year-old woman who worked at a Mitsubishi Heavy Industries aircraft factory as a 13-year-old in 1944, attended the rally and called on the Japanese companies to compensate the victims.

“I went to Japan and suffered there, and I should rightly receive the money from Japan,” Ms Yang said.

While Japan has been firm that its companies won’t directly pay the plaintiffs, talks over a resolution have included discussions of possible contributions by Japanese businesses to South Korean causes, although the nature of those contributions remains under discussion, the officials said.

Since taking office last year, Mr Yoon has sought to improve relations with Tokyo and move on from historical disputes. In a speech last week to mark the anniversary of a Korean uprising against Japanese colonial rule in 1919, he struck an unusually conciliatory tone.

“Japan has transformed from a militaristic aggressor of the past into a partner that shares the same universal values with us,” Mr Yoon said.

The speech won praise in Washington and Tokyo but was criticised in South Korea by some civic groups and members of the opposition for not taking on Japan more directly.

In 2015, Japan and South Korea agreed that Tokyo would contribute to a fund to pay Korean women who were forced to provide sex to Japanese soldiers during the colonial period. That deal fell apart a few years later when a new South Korean president said he would close the fund, citing objections from some of the women to the agreement.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has responded to Mr Yoon’s overtures by resuming talks on the sidelines of international meetings and highlighting the importance of co-operation with Seoul to tackle the threat of North Korean missiles.

Japanese media have speculated the two leaders may attend a game between Japan and South Korea at the World Baseball Classic tournament on March 10 in Tokyo. A South Korean diplomat said scheduling for Mr Yoon to visit Tokyo was being worked on.

In another sign of a thaw in relations, a South Korean court recently ruled in favour of Japan in a dispute over a Buddhist statue stolen from a Japanese temple and taken to Korea.

The Wall Street Journal