Presidential office thanks forced labor victims for accepting compensation from public fund
Yang Geum-deok, a surviving victim of wartime forced labor by Japan, speaks during a meeting of the National Assembly's Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee in Seoul, March 13. Korea Times photo by Koh Young-kwon
By Nam Hyun-woo
The presidential office on Friday expressed its gratitude to families of Japan's wartime forced labor victims, who agreed to receive compensation from a South Korean public fund.
The fund, which does not involve the offending Japanese firms, has been a subject of heated controversy. The fund served a critical role in restoring relations between Seoul and Tokyo, but at the same time, became a target of domestic criticisms that President Yoon Suk Yeol engaged Japan with “a submissive stance” because the fund does not involve the Japanese companies deemed responsible for paying restitution.
“Of the 15 forced labor victims (who won legal battles against Japanese companies), the families of 10 deceased victims have agreed to receive compensation from a South Korean public fund,” presidential spokesperson Lee Do-woon said.
“The office expresses its gratitude for their trust in the government's resolution and opening their minds. We will continue to communicate with three surviving victims and the families of two deceased victims and deliver the government's intention.”
The comments came after the South Korean foreign ministry said that 10 plaintiffs who won their compensation suits against Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Nippon Steel at the Supreme Court in 2018 have agreed to receive the money through the Foundation for Victims of Forced Mobilization.
According to the ministry, the families of two deceased victims have already received about 200 million won ($154,000) each this month, and the foundation will pay similar amounts to eight others beginning from Friday.
President Yoon Suk Yeol, left, and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida shake hands at the Japanese Prime Minister's office in Tokyo, March 16. Korea Times file
Compensating the victims through the South Korean foundation was proposed by the Seoul government in March as a breakthrough to the stalemate to resuscitate relations between Seoul and Tokyo, which had taken a turn for the worse.
Following the proposal, President Yoon visited Japan and had a summit with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in late March, where the two countries agreed to reset the bilateral relations as future-oriented.
However, this triggered a strong backlash in Korea, because it was interpreted as Yoon compromising Seoul's stance on the two countries' historical issues, and Japan did not show “reciprocal” responses to Yoon's appeasement gesture, namely apologies for its past wrong deeds.
Furthermore, controversies are ongoing as Tokyo made further controversial claims to South Korea's easternmost islets of Dokdo and continues to whitewash its 1910-1945 colonial annexation of South Korea.
Against this backdrop, it remains uncertain whether the government will be able to persuade the remaining five parties to accept the third-party compensation plan.
The three surviving victims ― Yang Geum-deok, Lee Choon-sik and Kim Sung-joo ― have already submitted documents to the foundation stating that they would reject the government's agreement of compensating them through a public fund. The families of two other deceased victims also sent similar documents to the foundation.