Photo/Illutration Participants gather on Jan. 12 in Seoul for a government-sponsored public forum to discuss compensation for Korean wartime laborers. (Kiyohide Inada)

High-level diplomats from Japan and South Korea working to resolve one of the thorniest bilateral issues in decades are still feeling each other out over the latest proposed solution.

Takehiro Funakoshi, director-general of the Foreign Ministry’s Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, met on Jan. 16 with his South Korean counterpart, Seo Min-jeong, to discuss the issue of compensating Korean wartime laborers.

But the two sides have so far failed to make any traction on the most recent idea floated by Seoul.

Seo said South Korean officials laid out their proposal to settle the dispute at an open forum on Jan. 12 in Seoul.

It involves setting up a foundation that would pay the Korean laborers in place of the defendant Japanese companies. The foundation would receive donations from companies in both South Korea and Japan.

But when lawyers for the plaintiffs who sued Japanese companies and their clients for compensation voiced their views on the proposal, they were mostly negative.

The plaintiffs want the Japanese companies to respond in a manner that is clearly apologetic, and they want a better picture of where the money will come from.

Observers said Seo likely sought something at the Jan. 16 meeting that would show a sincere response, such as an apology and firm monetary contribution from the Japanese companies, to appease the South Korean plaintiffs.

“We will not be able to gain the understanding of the plaintiffs and the South Korean public without a ‘response’ from the Japanese side,” said a high-ranking official in the South Korean presidential office.

But a high-ranking Foreign Ministry official said it has been difficult for the Japanese government to produce a response, since no consensus was reached in South Korea about the proposal.

Tokyo’s stance has long been that all compensation claims stemming from Japan’s colonial rule were settled under a 1965 bilateral agreement that came alongside the normalization of diplomatic relations.

Officials have insisted it was Seoul’s responsibility to block South Korean court decisions ordering compensation through liquidating assets held by defendant Japanese companies in South Korea.

The defendant Japanese companies, Nippon Steel Corp. and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd., only said the dispute should be sorted out by the two governments.

Nippon Steel President Eiji Hashimoto told reporters in late December that the compensation issue is a “government matter and not one involving our company.”

“While it is not good to have Japan and South Korea in a confrontational state, the two nations have to resolve the issue,” he said.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries on Jan. 16 declined to comment because the two countries are still negotiating.

(This article was written by Kiyohide Inada in Seoul and Anri Takahashi and Satoru Eguchi in Tokyo.)

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