South Korea offers compensation for victims of Japan's wartime forced labour; US hails 'groundbreaking' plan
South Korea
On Monday,South Korea announced plans to compensate victims of Japan's forced wartime labour, aiming to end a vicious cycle in the Asian country and to boost its ties to counter nuclear-armed NorthKorea.
This move tries to resolve the forced labour following years of disputes over World War II sex slaves, which soured Japan-South Korean ties, AFP reported.
Foreign Minister Park Jin said that Seoul's plan is to take money from major South Korean companies that benefited from the 1965 reparations deal with Tokyo and will use it to compensate victims.
Park added, "I believe that the vicious circle should be broken for the sake of the people at the national interest level."
The Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi also praised the plan and said that this initiative would helprestore "healthy" ties between the two countries after years of tensions.
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According to the statement issued by the White House, Washington hailed the decision and called it a "groundbreaking new chapter of cooperation and partnership between two of the United States' closest allies."
While the announcement was welcomed by both Japan and the United States, the victims have criticised the proposal as it falls far short of their demand which is a full apology from Tokyo and direct compensation from the Japanese companies involved.
According to data from Seoul, around 780,000 Koreans were conscripted into forced labour by Tokyo during the 35-year occupation. This does not include women who were forced into sexual slavery by Japanese troops.
The move comes as Seoul and Tokyo already ramped up their security cooperation amid growing threats from North Korea, but the bilateral ties remained strained over Tokyo's brutal 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean peninsula.
Tokyo has insisted on the 1965 treaty- which saw the two countries restore their diplomatic ties with a reparations package of about $800 million in grants and cheap loans and settled all loans between the two relating to the colonial period.
(with inputs from agencies)
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