Faced with tensions with North Korea, Seoul and Tokyo want to strengthen their ties. In this logic, South Korea announced on Monday, March 6, a plan to compensate its nationals who were victims of forced labor during the period of occupation of the territory by Japan.
The two countries are key regional security allies of the United States, facing North Korea, but their bilateral relationship has long been strained due to Tokyo’s colonial occupation of the Korean peninsula between 1910 and 1945.
According to data provided by Seoul, about 780,000 Koreans were conscripted into forced labor by Japan during the 35-year occupation, not counting women reduced to sexual slavery by Japanese troops.
South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin announced on Monday the creation of a South Korean foundation to compensate the victims and their families, but without direct Japanese involvement, which could attract many criticisms. He said he “hopes that Japan will respond positively to our major decision today, with voluntary contributions from Japanese companies and a full apology.”
The Japanese government immediately welcomed Monday, saying Seoul’s plan would help “restore healthy relations” between the two countries. Tokyo has not reiterated its apologies for the mistreatment suffered by Koreans under its occupation. Japan insists that a treaty signed in 1965 – which allowed the two countries to establish diplomatic relations and obtain reparations amounting to around 800 million dollars (about 750 million euros) ) in the form of grants and cheap loans ? settled all claims between the two countries regarding the colonial period.
A historical dispute that has come back to the fore
But the ties between the two neighbors had deteriorated in recent years due to the return to the forefront of this historic dispute. In a historic 2018 judgment, the Supreme Court of South Korea ordered certain Japanese companies to pay compensation to a handful of victims.
The new plan of the Seoul government plans to entrust a local foundation with the task of accepting donations from large South Korean companies – which benefited from reparations granted by Japan in 1965 – to compensate the victims.
The minister considered this historic agreement essential to improve ties between Tokyo and Seoul. “Cooperation between Korea and Japan is very important in all areas of diplomacy, economy and security, in the current serious international situation and difficult global crisis,” he said. . “I believe that the vicious circle should be broken for the sake of [the] peoples in the national interest, rather than leaving [our] relations [so] strained for a long time,” he added.
A plan hailed by Tokyo and Washington
For its part, “the Japanese government appreciates the measures announced by the South Korean government today as an effort to restore healthy relations between Japan and South Korea,” said the Japanese Foreign Minister, Yoshimasa Hayashi, in front of journalists. He, however, reiterated that his government would stick to the 1998 statement which already includes an apology. In Japan, media had previously reported that companies could make voluntary donations.
The announcement of this “historic” plan was welcomed by Washington. US Foreign Minister Antony Blinken in a statement praised the “courage” and “vision” of the South Korean and Japanese governments. Seoul and Tokyo are “two of America’s most important allies and we are inspired by the work they have done to advance our bilateral relationship,” he added.
This historic dispute between South Korea and Japan, and the resulting tensions, has long crystallized around the issue of sexual slavery during World War II. According to the majority of historians, up to 200,000 women – mainly from Korea but also from other Asian countries including China – were forced into prostitution in Japanese military brothels.
In 2015, Seoul and Tokyo reached an agreement to “definitively and irreversibly” settle this issue: Japan formally apologized and a billion yen fund was established for survivors. But South Korea had backtracked, for lack of consent from the victims and their families. This decision has increased diplomatic tensions, affecting trade and security ties between the two countries.
Violent protests from victim groups
For Park Jin, this new compensation plan offers an opportunity to create “a new story for Korea and Japan, going beyond antagonisms and conflicts, to move forward into the future”. “If we compare that to a glass of water, I think the glass is more than half full. And I think the glass will fill more depending on the heartfelt response from Japan that follows,” he said.
This approach has the support of many families of victims, according to the minister who promised that they would be consulted “one by one” in order to obtain “sincerely their understanding”. However, the measure has already sparked strong protests from victims’ groups, who want financial compensation and apologies directly from the Japanese companies concerned.
“It’s as if the ties of forced labor victims are dissolved in South Korean corporate money,” Lim Jae-Sung, a lawyer for several victims, wrote in a Facebook post on Sunday.