Korean Gov Announces Deal to Solve ROK-Japan Stalemate. Progressives Oppose It.
Korean Gov Announces Deal to Solve ROK-Japan Stalemate. Progressives Oppose It.
South Korean foundation will compensate victims of Japanese forced labor. ROK Foreign Minister reaches out to Japan.
In November, I wrote why it was so difficult for Korea to solve its impasse with Japan. The two countries have been locked in a diplomatic spat and trade war ever since Korean courts ruled Japanese companies must compensate Korean World War II era forced laborers.
I wrote,
What kind of agreement would be deemed acceptable by the press and public in Korea? Representatives of the victims are said to be against receiving compensation from the Korean government (as opposed to it coming directly from Nippon Steel). That would be “undesirable and not appropriate”—so said a ROK Foreign Ministry spokesperson. Japan takes the same hard position against its companies having to pay.
Now the Yoon Suk-youl administration has proposed its solution: a Korean foundation should pay.
Minister Park said that the foundation would also pay any claims victims win in cases that are currently pending. He stressed that he hoped this solution would lead to better relations between the ROK and Japan.
According to an article by Li Yoo at Mindle News,
Financial resources are raised solely from donations from Korean companies, including POSCO, the largest beneficiary of the 1965 Korea-Japan Claims Settlement Agreement [in which Japan paid $300 million to Korea]. … The Yoon government has “requested” Japanese companies, including the defendant companies, contribute to the fund through negotiations, but the Japanese government has stood firm against it. It adheres to Japan's consistent claim that all historical issues related to Japan's colonial rule, including the issue of forced labor, were legally resolved through the Korea-Japan Claims Settlement Agreement.
Some progressives oppose this plan because it does not require Japanese companies to apologize or fund the compensation.
The Hankyoreh, Korea’s leading progressive newspaper, wrote in an editorial that the proposal is “the same as denying the Supreme Court ruling” and that it undermines the legitimacy of the Constitution of the Republic of Korea’s article calling colonialism illegal.
이번 ‘해법’은 행정부가 대법원 판결을 전면 부인하는 셈이다. 또 ‘식민지배는 불법’이라는 우리 헌법 질서를 정부 스스로 훼손하는 것이다.
But what would the alternative solution be? Korea’s administrations often want Japan to apologize. Japan usually refuses to apologize or does so only begrudgingly and walks it back later. It has been 78 years since Korea was liberated from Japan. What purpose is served by continuously relitigating historical grievances?
However, if this agreement between Yoon and Fumio Kishida is not accepted by the victims or by the Korean public, it may leave the issue of forced labor open to further arguments at the next election.
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