S. Korea Regrets Japan's Failure To Honor Wartime Forced Labor Victims - Foreign Ministry

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 13th December, 2022) South Korea has expressed regret over Japan's failure to fulfill its commitments related to the state's pledge to honor wartime forced labor victims at some of its industrial revolution sites on the UNESCO World Heritage list, South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman Lim Soo-suk said on Tuesday.

"Our government expresses regret over the fact that repeated decisions by the World Heritage Committee and follow-up measures, which Japan itself pledged, have not been faithfully implemented," Lim said in a commentary, as quoted by the Yonhap news agency.

The diplomat urged Japan "to fully enforce the follow-up measures pledged by itself," as quoted by the news agency.

Japan said in its recent report on the realization of measures concerning its 23 Meiji-era iron and steel, shipbuilding and coal mining sites that work at the Hashima facility, among others, was severe "for all miners" and that evidence had nor shown that conditions were "any worse for those from the Korean Peninsula."

The list of sites associated with Japan's Meiji industrial revolution also includes Kagoshima, Saga, Nagasaki, Nirayama in Shizuoka, Kamaishi in Iwate and others.