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South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin holds fingers of Lee Choon-sik, 98-year-old survivor of wartime pressured labor, in Gwangju on Friday. (Yonhap) |
The ministry additionally stated it has not but set a deadline for when it will current a authorities answer to the authorized dispute, which has risen as a significant level of political friction with Japan.
The ministry’s response denied a report on Tuesday within the Japanese every day Yomiuri Shimbun. The report cited a high-ranking Korean official saying that the South Korean authorities will give you a remaining answer to resolve the dispute associated to the forced-labor situation by October.
“The government will review the suggestions made at the government-private consultative group and come up with a rational way (to resolve the dispute) as soon as we can, with a sense of responsibility,” Lim Soo-suk, the Foreign Ministry spokesperson, stated in an everyday press briefing.
During the fourth assembly of the government-private consultative group on Monday, the individuals — together with authorities officers, Japan specialists and attorneys — advised {that a} third occasion may take the monetary legal responsibility of Japanese corporations ordered to supply compensation for forcing Koreans into labor throughout wartime, as a method to resolve the extended dispute.
The group additionally shared the view that the thought of “subrogation payment,” or the Korean authorities utilizing the state funds to pay the victims and ask for Japanese firms for reimbursement later, shouldn’t be acceptable.
Seoul’s Foreign Ministry launched the consultative group in July to assemble opinions of specialists and victims earlier than Seoul’s Supreme Court delivers a remaining ruling on the case, wherein Korean victims search liquidation of two Japanese corporations’ property. The corporations have been ordered to supply compensation for forcing the victims into labor throughout Japan’s occupation of Korea from 1910 to 1945.
The courtroom rulings in favor of the Korean victims have come to pressure bilateral ties with Japan, which rejects the corporations’ legal responsibility. Japan argues that every one claims associated to its annexation of Korea have been settled as soon as and for all by an settlement signed in 1965.
During Monday’s assembly, the individuals raised the thought of a 3rd occasion assuming the Japanese corporations’ legal responsibility — not by canceling their obligation, however by creating a brand new debt contract with the creditor. In this case, the collectors are the Korean victims who’re plaintiffs within the go well with.
Accordingly, this could assure that the monetary obligation imposed on the Japanese corporations by the Korean courtroom may be fulfilled with out acquiring the permission of the collectors.
The specialists, nonetheless, stated that it will be inappropriate for the federal government to change into a 3rd occasion to tackle the Japanese corporations’ legal responsibility. Instead, new or present civic foundations may step as much as type a brand new debt contract with the Japanese corporations and gather donations.
While the Yoon Suk-yeol administration is tasked with addressing the victims’ calls for for honest apologies from the Japanese corporations, it’s striving to discover a answer that may keep away from the liquidation of the Japanese corporations’ property, because it seeks to revive long-strained relations with Japan.
As the consultative group mentioned methods to meet the courtroom’s ruling with minimal harm, in addition they agreed that the Korean authorities ought to ramp up efforts to elicit some form of an apology from the Japanese aspect, whether or not or not it’s from the Japanese authorities or the businesses.
The fourth assembly of the consultative group, presided over by First Vice Minister Cho Hyun-dong, was virtually the final to happen with restricted individuals, based on the Foreign Ministry official. The official stated there may very well be extra conferences, however the format can be totally different, resembling an expanded meting involving extra individuals.
By Jo He-rim (herim@heraldcorp.com)