Lee accuses Yoon administration of humiliating forced labor victims

Opposition leader Lee Jae-myung accused the government of President Yoon Suk Yeol of humiliating victims of Japan’s wartime forced labor by treating them as if they are fighting for money when they are struggling for decades to get their damage recognized.

Lee, chairman of the main opposition Democratic Party, made the remark during a rally marking the anniversary of the March 1 Independence Movement, a 1919 nationwide uprising against the Japanese colonial rule, referring to Seoul’s proposal to set up a public foundation to compensate forced labor victims.

“Here with us are many people who suffered from Japan’s barbarian aggression,” Lee said during the rally in central Seoul, referring to forced labor victims. “They are fighting for decades to get the objective facts recognized, but this government severely humiliated them as if they are fighting for money.”

The issue of wartime forced labor has been the biggest thorn in relations between South Korea and Japan since Japan imposed export curbs against the South in 2019 in retaliation of the South Korean Supreme Court’s order for Japanese firms to pay compensation to Korean forced labor victims.

The Japanese government has long claimed that all reparation issues stemming from its 1910-45 colonial occupation of the Korean Peninsula were settled under a 1965 treaty that normalized relations between the two countries.

In an effort to break the deadlock, the Yoon administration came up with the proposal to set up a public foundation based in South Korea to pay the compensation for Korean forced labor victims who won lawsuits against Japanese companies.

Earlier in the day, Lee also accused the government of damaging the spirit of the March 1 Independence Movement, claiming that trust-building with Japan is impossible unless the neighboring country takes responsibility and offers legal compensation for its 1910-45 colonial rule of Korea.

“The Yoon Suk Yeol government is oblivious of the March 1 Independence Movement spirit and is damaging it,” Lee said in a Facebook post. “No one would oppose building future-oriented Korea-Japan relations. Without historical responsibility and legitimate legal compensation, however, it is impossible to build trust.”