South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin speaks during a briefing announcing a plan to resolve a dispute over compensating people forced to work under Japan's 1910-1945 occupation of Korea, at the Foreign Ministry in Seoul, South Korea, March 6, 2023. (PHOTO / AP)
SEOUL – South Korea announced a plan on Monday to resolve a dispute over compensating people forced to work under Japan's 1910-1945 occupation of Korea, although victims groups have expressed doubts.
South Korea's Yonhap news agency, citing unnamed government sources, had said that as part of the deal Seoul and Tokyo had tentatively agreed to create a "future youth fund" to sponsor scholarships with funds from companies in both countries
The disagreements over labor and women forced into Japanese military brothels have bedevilled ties between the two pivotal US allies for years, but South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol has made a push to repair the relationship.
Under the plan, South Korea would compensate former forced laborers through a public foundation funded by private-sector companies, Foreign Minister Park Jin told a briefing.
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When Seoul first raised the proposal in January, it sparked backlash from victims and their families because it did not include contributions from Japanese companies, including those ordered by South Korean courts to pay reparations.
About a dozen protesters demonstrated outside as Park made the announcement.
"It's a complete victory by Japan, which has said it cannot pay a single yen on the forced labor issue," Lim Jae-sung, a lawyer for several victims, said in a Facebook post on Sunday, citing initial media reports of the deal.
South Korea's Yonhap news agency, citing unnamed government sources, had said that as part of the deal Seoul and Tokyo had tentatively agreed to create a "future youth fund" to sponsor scholarships with funds from companies in both countries.
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Park said that he believes the Japanese government would not prevent Japanese companies from voluntarily contributing.
Relations plunged to their lowest point in decades after South Korea's Supreme Court in 2018 ordered Japanese firms to pay reparations to former forced laborers. Fifteen South Koreans have won such cases, but none has been compensated.
The row spilled over into a trade dispute. Japan has maintained the compensation issue was settled under earlier treaties.
Earlier on Monday, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told parliament that talks were ongoing and that it was not appropriate to discuss specifics.