S. Korean gov’t rapped for diplomacy with Japan involving war-linked mine

SEOUL, Aug. 15 (Xinhua) — The South Korean government has been rapped by media for its diplomacy with Japan involving a war-linked mine that was listed as a UNESCO world heritage thanks to an agreement by Seoul.
The local newspaper Hankyoreh described the agreement as a “diplomatic disaster” and “cream puff diplomacy” for the Yoon Suk-yeol government, which valued “cooperation with Japan” over the “truth of history.”
The UNESCO World Heritage Committee decided last month to inscribe the “Sado Island Gold Mines,” a gold mine on Sado Island associated with the Korean Peninsula’s wartime forced labor, on the World Heritage List.
Seoul’s Foreign Ministry said that the Yoon government agreed on the decision on the premise that Japan faithfully implements recommendations to reflect the “entire history” of the mine “on the site” and takes preemptive measures for it.
A day after the decision, Japan opened an exhibition hall of 21.84 square meters to demonstrate the dismal working conditions of the Korean Peninsula’s forced labor victims, but no exhibit acknowledged Japan’s forcible mobilization of Korean laborers, according to Hankyoreh.
South Korean historians say thousands of Koreans were forced by Imperial Japan into heavy labor for the gold mine, which was turned into facilities to manufacture war-related materials during World War II when the Korean Peninsula was under Japan’s colonial rule. The mine was shut down in 1989.
Hankyoreh noted that the agreement was made despite Tokyo’s dismissal of Seoul’s demand during negotiations to exhibit information about the forcible mobilization of Korean laborers, calling South Korea’s diplomacy with Japan “humiliating.”
During the negotiations, South Korea asked Japan to exhibit Japanese historical records, including the term “forced to work,” but Japan ultimately rejected it, the South Korean Foreign Ministry said in its written response to a lawmaker of the main opposition Democratic Party.
“It is shocking that the victim (South) Korea tolerated the dark history of war crimes despite the perpetrator Japan’s refusal to acknowledge the forcible mobilization of Koreans. Isn’t the Yoon Suk-yeol government afraid of history?” the local daily Kyunghyang Shinmun said in an editorial. ■