SEOUL, Aug 16 (NNN-YONHAP) – South Korean President, Moon Jae-in, said, his government was ready to sit face-to-face with Japan, to resolve a long-drawn-out issue over South Korean victims of forced labour by Japan during World War II.
“Our government is ready to sit face-to-face with the Japanese government at any time,” Moon said, in his televised speech to mark the 75th anniversary of the Korean Peninsula’s liberation from the 1910-45 Japanese colonial rule.
“The government respects the judiciary’s ruling, and has consulted with Japan on a resolution, to which the victims can agree,” Moon said.
Moon noted that South Korea currently left the door of consultations with Japan “wide open” over the forced labour issue.
Four South Korean victims, who were forced into heavy labour without pay during the colonial era, filed a damages lawsuit in 2005, against a Japanese steelmaker. Among the four victims, Lee Chun-sik is the only surviving plaintiff because of old age.
It was followed by other wartime forced labour victims and their families lodging compensation suits against Japanese companies.
South Korea’s Supreme Court delivered a ruling in 2018, that ordered some of Japanese companies to pay reparation to the victims.
Japan claimed that all colonial-era issues were settled through a 1965 bilateral treaty that normalised diplomatic relations between Seoul and Tokyo, but the South Korean top court ruled that the state-to-state deal did not involve individuals’ right to reparation.
Referring to the surviving plaintiff, Lee Chun-sik, Moon said, “We will confirm the fact that protecting the dignity of an individual will never be a loss to the country.”
In an apparent protest against the South Korean top court’s ruling, Japan tightened control, in July last year, over its export to South Korea of three materials vital to producing memory chips and display panels that are the mainstay of South Korea’s export.
In Aug last year, Japan dropped South Korea off its whitelist of trusted trading partners, which gave preferential export procedure. In response, Seoul removed Tokyo from its whitelist of trusted export partners.– NNN-YONHAP
