'Korea, Japan working on UNESCO documents'

By Yi Whan-woo

Korea and Japan are fine-tuning wording to describe the forced labor of Koreans during the 1910-45 colonial rule of the peninsula at some of Tokyo’s candidate sites for the world heritage list, according to diplomatic sources, Wednesday.

The two sides are also considering attaching an annotation on Japan’s UNESCO documents to address the historical wounds of Korea in Tokyo’s bid to win world heritage recognition for its 23 Meiji Industrial revolution sites, the sources said.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Noh Kwang-il refused to confirm, saying “This is not something I can answer at this point.”

The comments came after officials from the two countries met in Tokyo, Tuesday, for a third round of negotiations to settle their dispute over Japan’s UNESCO campaign.

Seoul has demanded that Tokyo address the fact that approximately 57,900 Koreans were coerced into slave labor and 94 of them died while working under harsh condition at the 23 sites, including shipyards, coalmines and steelworks.

Before Tuesday’s discussion, Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se said Sunday that he and his Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida “found common ground over Japan’s UNESCO bid” in their bilateral talks in Tokyo.

According to the sources, Seoul has asked that Korean workers at the seven sites be referred to as “victims of forced labor,” while Tokyo prefers the term “conscripted workers.”

The sources said that the Japanese government is taking other measures into consideration, such as recounting the history of slave labor on signs at the sites, and on the websites of local governments that have jurisdiction over them and in pamphlets for visitors.

Tokyo previously ignored Seoul’s demands, arguing that its neighbor was making “political assertions.”

It also claimed the 23 sites were built between 1850 and 1910, a move seen as an attempt to avoid arguments with Korea.

Some sources speculate that Japan may find it burdensome to not settle the dispute before the World Heritage Committee (WHC)’s General Assembly slated for June 28-July 8 in Bonn, Germany.

Twenty-one member-states of the WHC, which is under UNESCO, will vote whether to accept Japan’s bid during their meeting.

The member states include Korea and Japan, as well as Germany, which has urged Japan to correctly address its historical record.