Photo/Illutration Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi, right, and his South Korean counterpart, Park Jin, bump elbows ahead of their talks in Tokyo last July. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

SEOUL--South Korea is fine-tuning plans to offer redress to wartime Korean laborers who worked for Japanese businesses to resolve an issue that sent bilateral ties into a nosedive after the country’s Supreme Court issued an order for compensation, sources said.

The initiative under consideration by the administration of President Yoon Suk-yeol would collect donations from two countries as an alternative to cashing assets already stripped from Japanese companies.

South Korea’s Foreign Ministry is scheduled hold an open forum Jan. 12 of lawyers for the plaintiffs, as well as experts, over the government’s proposal.

Government officials are expected to discuss the initiative and convey opinions voiced at the forum when they meet with their Japanese counterparts in the coming months.

South Korea’s Supreme Court in 2018 ordered Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. and what is now Nippon Steel Corp. to pay compensation to former wartime laborers after they filed damage suits to demand reparations.

Japan vigorously protested the Supreme Court rulings, citing its position that all matters concerning compensation related to its 1910-1945 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula were settled by a 1965 treaty normalizing bilateral ties.

With the initiative in place, the South Korea government intends to press Japan to donate funds to demonstrate a “sincere response,” including offering an apology to the laborers, to resolve the issue, according to the sources.

However, Seoul will not seek a written bilateral agreement for the proposal with Japan because an accord between Tokyo and Seoul in 2015 over the prickly issue of “comfort women” collapsed following vehement opposition from South Korean civic groups.

After the top court ruling, the companies’ assets in South Korea were seized.

Diplomats of the two countries have held talks on ways to avert cashing the assets to fund compensation claims and avoid further exacerbating already strained relations.

The South Korean government has proposed jointly setting up a foundation with companies at home to collect donations from businesses of both countries that will be presented to the plaintiffs in place of the court-ordered compensation.

A total of 32 plaintiffs and relatives of the deceased laborers won in the top court rulings and were awarded about 143 million yen ($1.08 million) in compensation.

Since then, some died.

South Korea’s Foreign Ministry estimates that the number of recipients now stands at 15 or so, officials said.

The Yoon administration is keen to expand economic and security cooperation with Japan considering the situation in East Asia but can only do so if it moves to repair the state of bilateral relations.

Key issues for both countries are North Korea’s military provocations and deepening confrontation between the United States and China.

But South Korea also realizes that Japan remains unwavering in its position that all matters stemming from the colonial period were settled long ago, according to the sources.

For this reason, the South Korean government has decided to present its proposal first in talks with Japanese officials and encourage Tokyo to respond.

It will announce its initiative to the South Korean public when and if positive developments arise from the Japanese side, such as a pledge to provide donations from Japanese businesses and a statement that would effectively be regarded as an apology demonstrating self-reflection on the issue.

The South Korean government contends that the plaintiffs and the public will not back its effort to resolve the wartime labor issue unless Japan comes to the table.

Still, some plaintiffs and their supporters remain adamant about demanding direct compensation from the companies.

It remains unclear whether they will receive funds from the foundation if that option becomes available.

(This article was written by Takuya Suzuki and Kiyohide Inada in Seoul.)

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