South Korea demanded Friday that Japan address Seoul‘s concerns over Tokyo’s attempt to win world heritage status for industrial facilities linked to wartime Korean slave labor.
Choi Jong-moon, South Korean ambassador for cultural and UNESCO affairs, said he delivered the concerns during a meeting here with Jun Shimmi, the Japanese foreign ministry‘s director-general for cultural affairs, and other diplomatic and culture officials from both sides.
Japan has applied to list a package of 23 coal mines, shipyards and other early industrial zones as UNESCO world heritage sites.
South Korea is strongly against the bid as the facilities include seven sites where nearly 60,000 Koreans were forced to work as slaves during World War II. Japan colonized Korea from 1910-45.
“South Korea’s opposition is not based on emotion,” Choi told reporters after leaving the meeting at the foreign ministry.
South Korean officials have said that one possible way to address the country‘s grievances would be to state in relevant UNESCO documents that the facilities were sites of forced labor.
ICOMOS, a panel of civilian experts under UNESCO, recently approved Japan’s bid. The final decision is expected to come during a meeting of the World Heritage Committee slated for June 28-July 8 in Bonn, Germany. (Yonhap)
