S Korean opposition party submits bill to settle wartime labor dispute with Japan

Wasn't this settled a few years ago in 2015?

Also just because S. Korea passes a bill saying that Japan has to repay the money, doesn't make it legally binding on Japan.

I think most will see this for what it is, Sabre rattling to take attention away form the real problems in S. Korea and appealing to patriotic sentiment before an election next year.

There is a legitimate reason why Hatoyama did not last very long in power. He's a stupid leftist who doesn't understand much about legal obligations or international relations (see his little farce with Okinawa).

As far as the text of the 1965 Treaty is concerned:

1 The High Contracting Parties confirm that the problems concerning property, rights, and interests of the two High Contracting Parties and their peoples (including juridical persons) and the claims between the High Contracting Parties and between their peoples, including those stipulated in Article IV(a) of the Peace Treaty with Japan signed at the city of San Francisco on September 8, 1951, have been settled completely and finally.

The Japanese and Korean governments are free to interpret it to not "extinguish" individual claims, as long as it does not lead to a situation where one government unilaterally uses its judiciary to make such claims.

Start with the text, not the legal theory.

@AlexBecu

They dont like the Emperor.

Koreans don't actually hate the Emperor. Emperor Akihito offered to visit comfort women and offer an apology in person, but was prevented from doing so by Abe san.

The same goes for Emperor Naruhito, who maintains the same offer of apology in person, pending Abe's approval.

It is Prince Fumihito, who will likely succeed Emperor Naruhito if the succession law isn't changed, who is a Abe style history denier.

Forgot to mention boycott of Japanese good by S. Korean citizens.

Cars, food, clothes, tourism, movies, anime

@AlexBecu - in other words, 'how dare the Koreans stop buying Japanese goods after Japan tried to deal a lethal blow to one of Korea's most important high tech industries'?

Japan has enjoyed a huge trade surplus vs Korea, and Korean goods never enjoyed any success in Japan, even after the quality and reputation of goods surpassed Japanese ones and were outselling Japanese products in every overseas market - TVs and consumer electronic goods for example.

also setting themselves on fire.

Surely you're not using examples of a few nutjobs to make a generalisation about an entire country? How about the Japanese nutjob who threatened to commit mass murder at a museum for displaying uncomfortable truths about 'comfort women'? That means Japan is a country of nutjobs in your mind?

S. Korea going back on agreements both the 1965 and now the 2015 comfort woman deal.

@AlexBecu - Wrong and wrong.

The 1965 normalisation treaty never settled the matter of individual compensation. This was always Japan's position as well even in the 1990s, until right wing Shinzo-kun came into power.

"The Japanese government should go back to its judgment that as for the issue of laborers, the individual rights to claim damages were not completely and finally resolved in the 1965 treaty," said Hatoyama, who served as prime minister in 2009-2010.

Hatoyama said that Shunji Yanai, then director of the treaty bureau at Japan's foreign ministry in 1991, told a parliamentary session at the time that the normalization treaty did not put an end to individual rights to damages.

"It was the official view of the Japanese government in the past, that (forced labor issue) was not finally and completely resolved by the treaty," he said.

1965 deal gone.

2015 deal gone.

1965 normalised the relations between the two countries. Individual rights to compensation were not settled.

The 2015 deal on 'comfort women' finally and irreversibly settled the matter of compensation for the 'comfort women' - NOT forced labourers.

I've asked a couple of dozen times on JT for posters to prove the 2015 deal was scrapped. but NOT ONE poster has posted a link to a story or statement by the SK government saying this.

I wonder if this time it will be different - but it won't be.

the current South Korean government erased the 2015 deal 

@Alex - Prove it. Post a link to an article or statement nullifying the final and irreversible deal.

Oh you can't? Why not?

@Heckleberry: the current South Korean government erased the 2015 deal but it didn't give the money back to Japan. Plus, who cares if the former Korean president is now in jail? These are Korean domestic problems!

Forgot to mention boycott of Japanese good by S. Korean citizens.

Cars, food, clothes, tourism, movies, anime, also setting themselves on fire. That's how much hate they have for Japan.

S. Korea going back on agreements both the 1965 and now the 2015 comfort woman deal.

Nothing that you sign with S. Korea means anything. It means 0

For decades you have allowed S. Korea to grow in Anti-Japan sentiments and now you have a long list of problems that S. Korea has with Japan.

From the sun flag

To comfort woman statues

To illegally taken the Takeshima Island in the 50s.

To sea food which Korea says is radioactive and they have to ban it.

To text books which they dont agree with.

Shrine for Japanese who fought for their country they are against.

They dont like the Emperor.

They dont like our government.

They dont like military.

1965 deal gone.

2015 deal gone.

This is the results of your actions, of appeasing S. Korea, negotiations with them and not standing tall and strong against this bias weak country which can only be stronger than Japan if the Japanese don't try at all and allow Korea to do whatever it wants.

And once Moon is gone and there's a new SK president in place. What's to stop SK from nulling that agreement and making further demands?

They've done it twice already and I wouldn't put it past then to try a third time as well....

@Kari - Again, the SK government has not nullified the final and irreversible 2015 agreement on 'comfort women'. There is lots of misinformation being peddled on JT as fact, the most obvious one being the claim that the 2015 agreement and compensation for the 'comfort women' somehow settled the matter of all Korean victims of imperial Japan.

The 2015 agreement was purely about 'comfort women', NOT about forced wartime labourers.

Source: Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs

https://www.mofa.go.jp/a_o/na/kr/page4e_000364.html

Already done. See 1965 and 2015 treaties.

@Hachi - How is the 2015 agreement on 'comfort women' supposed to have settled the forced wartime labourer issue?

It's only another ploy to extort an endless river of compensation from Japan.

@Bruce - the 2015 agreement and compensation for the 'comfort women' was around 8.3 million US dollars. An endless river of compensation or chump change at national level?

truth is that they always continue to ask for money.

@Alex - truth is that following the 2015 agreement on 'comfort women', the SK government has not asked for a single yen. The agreement was 'final and irreversible'. The current SK president Moon questioned the way the deal was made by the then president Park (now in jail for corruption), as surviving victims were not consulted and many openly opposed the ritual handshake with a handover of money, many of them refusing the compensation. However the SK government stopped short of scrapping the deal or asking for further compensation. If you can prove they have asked for more money, then prove it .

The main problem with South Korea is this. They say they want only "sincere apologies", but the truth is that they always continue to ask for money. They don't understand they sound false and opportunistic, they only exploit the true victims to get easy $$$. Enough is enough. It's obvious that Japan isn't happy to apologize further, because the more they admit their past mistakes, the more they are forced to pay further "compensation" to people who have nothing to do with something happened almost a century ago anymore. South Koreans are very proud and nationalistic but it's impressive how apparently they don't care to look like opportunistic parasites.

And once Moon is gone and there's a new SK president in place. What's to stop SK from nulling that agreement and making further demands?

They've done it twice already and I wouldn't put it past then to try a third time as well....

South Korea are deluded and it's kind of sneaky to continue to ask for money after it has already been settled twice. You can't keep moving the boundaries and expect the other team to just play along.

As an outsider to this dispute I look at it as both countries (but mainly SK) being small, petty and childish.

It's good that SKs have stopped coming to Japan in droves. Means far fewer tourists on the streets and while some tourists is a great thing, Japan has sold its soul for the dollar with tourism. It's ruining cities. And let's face it, trickle down is BS. they money is going into the coffers of the government and a select group of companies who pay pretty average wages.

It's only another ploy to extort an endless river of compensation from Japan.

Even a primitive society cannot function where one party endlessly violates previous agreements.

There is nobody alive today who wasn't punished for WW2 wrongdoing. There is nobody alive today who was hurt and would actually receive the enormous settlements they hope to keep milking out of Japan.

It is wrong to transfer wealth from a people 3 generations removed from the history to another nation that's equally three generations removed from victimhood!

It does nothing but perpetuate hatred and conflict.

Korea had better focus on solving their actual problems stemming from PRESENT domination by China and Russia.

This is actually worse than Moon's proposal.

Moon only asked for Japanese corporations, not Japanese government, to contribute to the compensation fund in a 1:1:1 contribution scheme.(Korean government:Korean corporations:Japanese corporations).

This proposal adds Japanese government to the pool in a 1:1:1:1 scheme.

Of course Abe san is going to reject it.

The bill seeks to create a fund with money from the governments and companies of both countries to pay damages to the plaintiffs.

Already done. See 1965 and 2015 treaties.

If S.Koreans can’t respect those, I don’t think they can honor another.

If with every new president there must be a new treaty, their words are not worth the paper they are written on.