Memorial ceremony for Sado miners to be held this year

The first-ever memorial ceremony for laborers in the Sado mines, a site associated with the forced labor of Koreans during Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula, will be held by the end of the year, Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul said Wednesday.

"The ceremony at the Sado mines will be held by the end of the year," Cho said during a parliamentary session held by the National Assembly's Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee.

"We are currently negotiating the date of the ceremony (with Japan) and communicating with them," he said.

Cho explained that while there had been talks of holding the ceremony as early as September, that would be now "slightly difficult" due to Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party's upcoming leadership election scheduled for Sept. 27.

Cho's remarks come amid mounting criticism that Seoul has failed to secure sufficient information and details regarding the ceremony, before the Sado Island gold mines were designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in July. The ceremony, which was negotiated to be held annually, is one of two key actions that Japan committed to in order to secure South Korea's consent for the registration.

The other action was to install exhibits on the forced mobilization of Koreans to labor in the mines at the Aikawa History Museum near the mine complex, but Seoul's Foreign Ministry revealed last month that Japan had refused their request to use the word "forced" to describe the Korean laborers, in the exhibition.

Officials at Korea's Foreign Ministry have so far revealed that the ceremony will be held around July and August annually on Sado Island located off the west coast of Niigata Prefecture, from next year, with Japanese officials from municipal and central governments in attendance. They have said that the venue and date for this year's event were under negotiation.

In response to the question of whether he is planning to attend the event, Cho said that the level of the Korean delegation dispatched to the event will be determined based on the Japanese officials participating in the ceremony.

The main opposition Democratic Party of Korea denounced the Yoon Suk Yeol administration's failure to confirm a date for the ceremony "with only around three months left until the end of the year."

"I believe we have yet to receive any promises (from the Japanese government) regarding the details (of the ceremony) to the point that we can't say anything about the event," Democratic Party Rep. Lee Jae-jung told Cho during the session.

"We are currently just waiting for Japan to make the decisions. With only some three months left until the end of the year, (we can only hope that the event will be actually held)."

Democratic Party Rep. Cho Jeong-sik called on the Korean government to request firmly that the Japanese government hold the ceremony.