South Korea announced on Monday a plan to compensate its nationals who were victims of forced labor in Japan during the war, to break the “vicious circle” of disputes between the two Asian countries and warm their relations with North Korea.
The two neighboring countries are close allies of the United States in Asia and have important economic ties, but their diplomatic relations are regularly poisoned by historical disputes dating back to the brutal Japanese colonization of the Korean peninsula (1910-1945).
According to Seoul, about 780,000 Koreans were subjected to forced labor during the 35 years of Japanese occupation, not counting the women reduced to sexual slavery by Japanese troops during World War II.
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 victims.
South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin said he “hopes Japan will respond positively to our major decision today, with voluntary contributions from Japanese companies and a full apology.”
“Cooperation between Korea and Japan is very important in all areas of diplomacy, economy and security, in the current context of serious international situation and difficult global crisis,” added the minister, who wants to “break the vicious circle in the name of the national interest”.
This new compensation plan offers an opportunity to create “a new story for Korea and Japan, going beyond antagonisms and conflicts, to move forward,” said Park Jin.
“Healthy Relationships”
Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi on Monday welcomed the South Korean plan, which he said will help “restore healthy relations” between the two countries.
But he immediately hinted that Tokyo would not apologize further to Seoul, pointing to a ‘joint statement’ from 1998 where then Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi expressed ‘deep remorse’ for the damage and suffering. caused by Japanese colonization of the Korean Peninsula.
Tokyo also insists that a bilateral treaty signed in 1965 — which allowed the two countries to establish diplomatic relations and Seoul to obtain hundreds of millions of dollars in reparations in the form of grants and loans market — settled all disputes between the two countries concerning the colonial period.
In a context of polarization around the conflict in Ukraine, and faced with the threat of North Korea, which has nuclear weapons, US President Joe Biden hastened to hail “a revolutionary new chapter of cooperation and partnership between two of America’s closest allies. The head of American diplomacy Antony Blinken praised “historic announcements” and praised the “courage” and “vision” of the South Korean and Japanese governments.
In a historic 2018 judgment, the Supreme Court of South Korea ordered certain Japanese companies to pay compensation to a handful of South Korean victims, which had revived litigation and damaged relations between the two countries.
In 2019, Japan introduced restrictions on the export to South Korea of certain chemical products and components.
As a sign of goodwill, Seoul said on Monday it was suspending its complaint to the World Trade Organization pending bilateral talks to lift the restrictions.
Apologies first
Historical disputes between the two countries have long crystallized around the issue of sexual slavery during the Second World War.
According to most historians, up to 200,000 women—mostly from Korea, but also from other Asian countries, including China—were forced into prostitution in Japanese military brothels.
In 2015, Seoul and Tokyo had concluded an agreement aimed at settling this question “definitively and irreversibly”: Japan had formally apologized and a fund of one billion yen (about seven million euros) had been created for the survivors. But Seoul had backtracked, for lack of consent from the victims.
The new compensation plan enjoys the support of many families of victims, assures Park Jin, promising that they would be consulted “one by one” in order to obtain “sincerely their understanding”.
However, the plan has already sparked strong protests from victims’ groups, who want financial compensation and a direct apology from the Japanese companies involved.
“The significance of today’s announcement will be measured in large part by what Japan does next,” judge Benjamin A. Engel, a professor at Seoul National University. At a minimum, an apology from Tokyo and donations from two Japanese companies would help gain public acceptance of the deal, he said.
“You have to apologize first,” one victim, Yang Geum-deok, blasted, according to the Yonhap news agency. “I will not take money that appears to be the result of begging.”