South Korea to boycott memorial ceremony of forced labor victims in Japan

By Berk Kutay Gokmen

ISTANBUL (AA) – South Korea announced on Thursday that it will boycott a memorial ceremony in Japan honoring victims of forced labor, including Koreans, after disagreeing with Tokyo's choice of wording for the memorial speech, the Korea Times reported.

South Korea's Foreign Ministry has announced that it will not attend the upcoming memorial ceremony at the Sado gold mines, citing a failure to reach an agreement with Japan on language acknowledging forced labor at the site.

The event is scheduled for Sept. 13 near the mine in Niigata Prefecture.

"We held serious discussions with the Japanese side over the matter but ultimately failed to narrow differences on critical issues and decided it was difficult to participate," a ministry official said during a press briefing.

The official declined to elaborate on the specifics, noting only that both sides had "sincere discussions."

Another reason behind the decision, according to the official, is the limited time available to make arrangements for the families of forced labor victims to attend.

Seoul informed Tokyo of its decision earlier in the day. The ministry also plans to hold a separate memorial near the mine with victims’ families, though no date has been announced.

This is the second year in a row that South Korean officials will not attend the ceremony. Seoul skipped the inaugural event last year due to similar issues.

The annual memorial is part of a 2023 agreement after the Sado mine, which used forced labor during WWII, was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Korea's support was critical to the designation, and Japan agreed to commemorate the site's wartime history by holding annual ceremonies to honor those forced to work there, including Koreans.

However, the first memorial became a diplomatic flashpoint when South Korean officials withdrew at the last minute, citing Japan's chosen representative and speech wording, which omitted direct references to the coercive nature of the labor.