Moon rejects Japan's claims over forced labor ruling

By Yi Whan-woo

President Moon Jae-in denied Japan’s claims that the South Korean Supreme Court’s recent ruling on wartime labor violates the diplomatic treaty signed between Seoul and Tokyo in 1965, Friday.

During a meeting with a group of Japanese lawmakers at Cheong Wa Dae, Moon countered claims that Japan has completed its reparations over its 1910-45 colonization of the Korean Peninsula.

On Nov. 29, the Supreme Court ordered Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to compensate four elderly Koreans who were forced into laboring for the company during the colonial rule.

“The Supreme Court’s ruling does not ignore the 1965 treaty,” Moon told the delegates of the Japan-Korean Parliamentarian Union.

However, he still said the rights for individual victims of forced labor to demand compensation from the Japanese companies they were forced to toil for “have not perished.”

His remark came in response to a request from Fukushiro Nukaga, a Liberal Democratic Party member who led the union, for the government to deal with the court ruling in an appropriate manner.

“The government will take sufficient time and discuss the matter with private and public experts,” Moon said.

He referred to the legislative division of power and underscored that his government should respect the court’s decision.

“It is important that people of the two countries are not provoked, because hurting each others’ feelings is not good for the future of Korea-Japan relations,” the President said.

The Japanese delegation visited Seoul to attend a general meeting of the group of South Korean and Japanese lawmakers seeking to promote bilateral ties.