President Yoon Suk-yeol (right) and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida pose Saturday, November 12, 2022 for the family photo of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) plus three summit in a hotel in Phnom Penh.
SEOUL, March 12 (Yonhap) — Following the announcement of a solution on compensation for victims of forced labor by Imperial Japan, offered by the Yoon Suk Yeol administration last week, through a third party and not by the Japanese companies concerned, the presidential office disclosed on Sunday the words spoken by Yoon on March 7 during the meeting of ministers: “This is a decision taken for the future.”
After the announcement ran counter to a 2018 South Korean Supreme Court ruling to compensate plaintiffs who were victims of forced labor by three Japanese companies including Nippon Steel and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, public opinion challenged the compensation by a South Korean foundation for victims of forced labor in the absence of Japanese companies.
According to Yoon’s remarks at the end of the ministers’ meeting, disclosed today by the presidential office, this decision was made in a spirit of “keeping election promises on the solution of forced labor” referring to the spirit of the 1998 joint statement between former President Kim Dae-jung and then Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi. Both leaders had called for overcoming the past and building new relationships, with the second expressing remorse for the “horrendous damage and pain” that Japan’s colonial rule inflicted on the Korean people.
President Yoon told members and ministers of his cabinet at the March 7 meeting that “I have made it clear that I intend to resolve the issue of forced labor as quickly as possible and to revive economic, cultural and military exchanges between two countries” by detailing that “I ask you to go and explain to the people that this is a promise made to the voters.”
Yongsan’s presidential office also noted that the solution proposed by the Yoon administration has been welcomed by the United States, the European Union (EU), Britain, Germany, Canada, Norway , Finland and the United Nations. He also noted that “we will make every effort to communicate with the victims in a sincere and close way to better explain this decision and to listen well to their positions”.
Yongsan added that “we will follow up on this proposal with the aim of realizing effective compensation and making more efforts for the development of relations between South Korea and Japan in the future as well as for the successful execution of this solution”. The presidential office also posted a video of President Yoon’s words on YouTube Shorts (https://han.gl/MggVK). In this image, the text on the plaque donated by US President Joe Biden, “The Buck Stops Here,” a metaphor for the slogan “I take all responsibility,” has been highlighted.
jhoh@yna.co.kr
(FIN)