Yoon: Forced labor plan crucial for better ties with Japan

SEOUL, South Korea — South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Tuesday defended his government’s contentious plan to use local funds to compensate Koreans enslaved by Japanese companies before the end of World War II, saying it’s crucial for Seoul to build future-oriented ties with its former colonial overlord. “It’s clear that future-oriented cooperation between South Korea and Japan will preserve freedom, peace and prosperity not only for the two countries, but also for the entire world.” Tensions with Japan had intensified after South Korea’s Supreme Court in 2018 upheld lower court verdicts and ordered Nippon Steel and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to compensate Korean forced laborers. And now we are all crippled because we were hurt.” Lee Jae-myung, the leader of the main opposition Democratic Party, called for Yoon’s government to withdraw its “insulting” plan, which he said “isn’t a solution and will only create new problems.” Yoon’s government insists that a South Korea-led solution to the discord was inevitable, considering Tokyo’s unwavering stance and the advanced age of surviving forced labor victims, who are mostly in their 90s. A senior South Korean presidential official, who spoke on condition of anonymity per department rules during a background briefing on Monday, said the government decided to release the plan after internally concluding the “Japanese government had reached the last limit on what it could do.” He said South Korea acknowledged it would be impossible for the Japanese government to accept the idea of Japanese firms offering direct reparations to Korean victims as Tokyo sees such action as “breaking” the 1965 accord.