S. Korea voices regret over Japan's failure to fulfill steps to honor forced labor victims

SEOUL, Dec. 13 (Yonhap) -- South Korea expressed regret Tuesday that Japan is dragging its feet over the implementation of a stated pledge to honor wartime forced labor victims at some of its industrial revolution sites on the UNESCO World Heritage list. Tokyo has recently submitted a report on the progress in its implementation of follow-up measures regarding Japan's 23 Meiji-era sites registered on the list in 2015. The sites include Hashima Island, or Battleship Island, where many Koreans were forced into labor. Despite its earlier pledge to remember the victims, Japan claimed in the report that work at the Hashima facility was severe "for all miners" and credible evidence has not indicated conditions were "any worse for those from the Korean Peninsula." "Our government expresses regret over the fact that repeated decisions by the World Heritage Committee and follow-up measures, which Japan itself pledged, have not been faithfully implemented," Lim Soo-suk, spokesperson for Seoul's foreign ministry, said in a commentary. "We urge Japan to fully enforce the follow-up measures pledged by itself." When the World Heritage Committee decided to register the Japanese sites on the coveted list, it recommended that Tokyo prepare an interpretive strategy to understand the "full" history of each facility. Japan also said Koreans and others were "brought against their will and forced to work under harsh conditions" in the 1940s at some of the sites, and that it will take appropriate measures to remember the victims. The forced labor issue has long been an irritant in the relations between Seoul and Tokyo, though the two neighbors have recently been seeking to improve security cooperation in the wake of North Korea's ballistic missile launches. sshluck@yna.co.kr (END)