Yoon says forced labor plan crucial for better ties with Japan

Leave it to an author influenced by te anti-JPN education in South Korea. Always put "brutal" before any reference to the colonial period ignoring the posiitive impact that occurred at the same time (allowing girls to go to school, building railways, roads, hospitals, increasing the average Korean's lifespan through better nutrition and hygiene, etc etc.) You want to see Brutal? Look at how the Belgians treated their colonial subjects in the Congo.

The forced labors under the mobilization law were indeed "forced" but not "enslaved". Conditions were bad for all workers who were paid. Not used as slaves. Even the plaintiffs in the SK court case do not charge "enslavement", simply "forced labor".

Again, the "Sex Slave" moniker for the Comfort Women who were military prostitutes in the employ of the Japanese military and they were paid. The issue is how they were recruited, nothing else.

Nothing is ever going to get permanently resolved until all parties, especially South Korea, faces the truth about it's role as part of the Japanese Empire.It may take a 100 years of domestic debate but regardless, putting the past aside today is imperative for South Korea to see that next 100 years. President Yoon is a couragous South Korean patriot, the likes of which the country has not seen since the early 1990s.

I'm surprised that the issue becomes such a high level diplomatic conflict.

I'm surprised that the issue becomes such a high level diplomatic conflict.

When Japanese corporations in Korea lost their court cases, and faced having their assets taken and sold to pay for the compensation it damn wells becomes a "high level conflict"

ShivajiToday  04:54 pm JST

I'm surprised that the issue becomes such a high level diplomatic conflict.

It became so because the previous SK president Moon refused to abide by the Arbitration Clause in the 1965 Treaty that would have established whether Japan has already paid compensation or not. Moon allowed the SK Courts to go ahead without first establishing jurisdiction in the face of the 1965 Treaty.

President Yoon has the job of undoing all the damage that Moon singularly caused to SK/JPN relations.

These 2 countries are extremely similar in every way imaginable.

Its just mind boggling. I used to go to SK at least once in every few months, if you ignore the billboards in korean it can actually take some time for you to acknowledge you are in another country.

How I wished these 2 great countries just get along and lead Asia.

But I guess they're more like those 2 ladies in the same dress for the party, or the two "good looking" guys invited to the same group, sometimes similarities can invite sudden competition coupled with unreasonable dislike

especially when both parties are way too confident and proud of their "supremacy" in their field.

South Korea and Japan are the 2 good looking guys in Asia.

Reminds me of France and UK relationship.

So close,yet so far.

Two countries still living in their past due to their ultra nationalist governments.

One with a vengeful spirit that won’t placate in decades,the other ruled by Nippon Kaigi which revised their history books and made look their own nation as the victim forgetting what they have done to other populations.

To apologize is not just throwing money at the face but also to feel sorry for it’s acts.

Name just one country, except Japan, which officially apologized , not just once, but so many times by the top of the nation in modern times about having RULED the land and the other ethnic people speaking different language by the treaty without no war, and demanded by not just so-called traitors but by the biggest political party in that nation when even the King was eager to be annexed under either one of the three options.? Forget dialects(different language as you can see Chinese really need common language as they cannot make themselves understood by their own language) , if it is true that so many Koreans were the base of Yayoi flowing from the peninsula to make the island country.

Sleep talking is meant to happen while you are sleeping. 

William77Today  06:10 pm JST

Two countries still living in their past due to their ultra nationalist governments.

One with a vengeful spirit that won’t placate in decades,the other ruled by Nippon Kaigi which revised their history books and made look their own nation as the victim forgetting what they have done to other populations

Often repeated nonsense. Japanese textbooks clearly state that "Japan invaded other Asian nations".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_war_apology_statements_issued_by_Japan#:~:text=Chief%20Cabinet%20Secretary%20Koichi%20Kato,nationality%20or%20place%20of%20birth.

Way to keep that hatred going.

Two countries still living in their past due to their ultra nationalist governments.

Oh NO. Japan has never flipped the table over about TREATY/AGREEMERNT. Even Abe did not take back Kono-danwa to issue his own Danwa. Don't just treat both the same way

France and UK

Socially, miles ahead of Japan and Korea, which are full of fossils

Just what I thought, everything evolves around CASH.

It seems like Germany is indeed compensating holocaust victims through the Luxembourg Agreements. The problem with Japan is that:

(1) It is denying its history.

(2) Most people in power in the LDP are direct descendants of these war criminals.

Though, it has been almost a hundred years since these crimes were committed, and there are not many survivors left. If South Korea want to settle the issue from their own pockets, well, then there is not much more to it.

Wow, this guy Yoon sounds serious.

The money to compensate the forced labor victims is likely to come from South Korean companies that benefited from that 1965 accord,

and what a plan! That actually works and leaves little room for Japan to claim that Korea never looks for an end to their claims and stone throwing. Of course there will be hysterics in the street with performances from crazy people flailing their arms in the air screaming, but those people will never let go of their now imbedded hatred and revenge lust. Ideas possess people, sometimes forever.

Meanwhile; calmer, pragmatic minds step to the plate****.

Could we actually be at a crossroads where the two neighbors finally realize the utility of cooperation and some simple good will? Now THAT would really be something. There’s other dark forces on the horizon to worry about anyways. Well done Mr Yoon, it’s a big play and hope it works out for you. Takes a lot of mettle to get off the victim train, swim against the tide and the offer of an actual workable solution is a very adult gesture! Now Japan is obliged to act in similar fashion. Sounds like a massive win.

Perhaps your not aware the majority of the women from Korea and other parts of the Asia-Pacific and Oceania were told they would be nurses only to horribly realize they were to be enslaved as comfort women and forced to work as factory workers.

Who told they would be nurses? Japanese soldiers?

This is the most positive action I’ve seen a politician take….in a long time.

South Korea is obsessed with Japan. Literally obsessed.

They envy Japan, jealous towards Japan.... If South Korea tries hard, can we do as good as Japan did or better? Japan is the line Koreans measure themselves too. Not the West, but Japan! Winning against Japan means 10x more then winning against anyone else for Koreans.

Koreans like to compare the size of their country, with Japan's size, flat land is similar in Japan and S.Korea, Korean dream is, can we become a great power like Japan did! If Japan disappeared today, Korean would say tomorrow he is the new Japan! And everything Japanese invented is a Korean idea.

In the process to achieve that goal, S.Korea copied 90% of everything Japan did! Uniforms in schools, business practice, technology and ideas copied from Japan, foreign policy, Koreans copy everything Japan does except for standing up to China,Russia, defend Taiwan, except that part, S.Korea does whatever Japan does!

Koreans are obsessed with Japan,Hate Japan, Jealous of Japan, envy towards Japan....... A Weird Combination Of Everything Combined tells you how Korea feels about Japan.

@OssanJapan

People like you are the reason why the disputes between Korea and Japan must be resolved by war. There is no other way.

Hopefully, one side can permanently change the other side during the occupation and restructuring of the other.

@finally rich

These 2 countries are extremely similar in every way imaginable.

They are not, they are actually the polar opposites of each other. Anyone who think otherwise are racists who can't tell different ethnicities apart.

@William77

Two countries still living in their past due to their ultra nationalist governments.

Actually Japan forgot the past, that's the problem. People who lived through war, like Tomino Yoshiyuki(Gundam), are extremely critical of Imperial Japan through their works, while people born after war fancy it.

@KennyG

demanded by not just so-called traitors but by the biggest political party in that nation when even the King was eager to be annexed under either one of the three options.?

This is why Japan needs a history education reform by outsiders. People like you are the proof.

Holocaust??? Like Asian Holocaust??? 

30 million Chinese died at the hands of Imperial Japan say hello to you from after life.

@ReasonandWisdomNippon

They envy Japan, 

Japan is actually held up as an example of how not to become a failed stated like in Korea.

If South Korea tries hard, can we do as good as Japan did or better?

Actually Koreans consider themselves having surpassed Japan.

Not the West, but Japan!

The country that Koreas measures against is Israel.

Korean would say tomorrow he is the new Japan! 

Koreans say they surpassed Japan 5 years ago.

Uniforms in schools

Korean uniform is modeled after UK since the 90s, very different from Japanese gakuran. It is actually Japan that copied Korean style uniform over the past 15 years.

business practice

Korean business practice is very American, complete with American board members. This is the legacy of the Asian financial crisis, where Korea's big firms were bailed out by US/European capitals, who then won seats at the board and demanded accounting/management reforms acceptable to them. This is why there are tons of foreigners working at Korean companies now, the work culture and language(English widely spoken) is very comfortable to them.

Japanese business on the other hand never changed, and this is why Japan stagnated and dying.

Japanese business on the other hand never changed, and this is why Japan stagnated and dying.

Japan has stagnated. Calls of it dying have been being bleated for a few decades now however, and yet it's still plodding along at 3rd largest economy in the world, with the yen being considered a safe currency to hold value.

Your comment comes across more as Korean anti-Japanese sentiment, than actually based on the reality of the world.

Yesterday, top law professors surveyed concluded Yoon's debt swap plan was illegal.

Today, an appeals court judge speaking anonymously to press also affirms Yoon's plan is illegal and can't be done if the plaintiffs refuse. The plaintiffs will likely have the seized Japanese assets liquidated if they stay the course.

Since the majority of plaintiffs said they would continue their liquidation case and a codification of Yoon's plan is impossible since the Democratic party who call Yoon a traitor is in power, the liquidation is only a matter of when, not if.

@Strangerland

Japan has stagnated. Calls of it dying have been being bleated for a few decades now however, and yet it's still plodding along at 3rd largest economy in the world

Most of Japanese businesses withered away outside of Japan. Even Japan's automakers are dying, thanks to Japan's refusal to change to EV world. After Japanese auto industry dies like electronics and shipbuilding, Japan has nothing left but finance and tourism catering to foreign tourists.

That's the reality that Japanese rightwingers in Japan don't see, just like how the Korean rightwingers in Korea failed to see the changing times back in the 1870s.

While Japan was forced to reform after the "surrender" to Commodore Perry's black ships, Korea actually defeated the French and American marines in the 1860s, decided that there was nothing to learn from the West and stayed the course. And the end result was the Japanese occupation of Korea.

Many historians say the Asian financial crisis of 1998 was a blessing in disguise, since it forced Korean business to change and reform Western business practices, who then went on to become world beaters.

Japan on the other hand avoided the 1998 Asian financial crisis, never changed, and is dying as the consequence.

The US stranglehold over South Korea and Japan is stronger than I thought. Both countries are destined to be the next Ukraine.

@Septim Dynasty

Both countries are destined to be the next Ukraine.

1) Korea is a military superpower so it's actually providing security protection to other countries willing to buy. UAE bought it since 2011(To the dismay of the liberals who opposed the deal), Saudi Arabia's trying to buy it which Moon refused but Yoon might be tempted to sell given the $100 billion that Saudi's dangling. A military superpower with more firepower than the Imperial Japanese Army of 1941 and more firepower than UK + France + Germany combined has no chance of becoming another Ukraine. In fact, North Korea insists on nukes to deter the Southern invasion which can reach Pyongyang in the 19th hour of war.

2) Japan has been surprisingly resistant to the US pressure, to both the US demand that Japan concede to Korea on historical issues and the US demand that Japan provide an advance consent on US use of Okinawan bases to launch military intervention during the Chinese invasion of Taiwan. As it stands now, Japanese plan is to drag out the debate at the Diet and hope for a quick Chinese takeover of Taiwan, so that Japan doesn't have to give consent and avoid being dragged into war. If Japan agrees, then Japan becomes a direct combatant in Taiwan conflict and it becomes legal for China to bombard Tokyo with thousands of ballistic missiles, a rare opportunity that China surely will not refuse. For Japan, not giving consent is the matter of national survival against the opponent seeking vengeance on Japan's past atrocities that were worse than the Nazis.

The leader of the majority of parliament(The Democratic Party) has warned Korean business to not to make contribution to Yoon's fund, as they will label any such corporation traitors like Yoon(Yoon's current nickname in Korea is "Traitor Yoon", changed from "Drunk Pig Yoon") and investigate them when they take back presidency. The term "Traitor Yoon" is widely used in Korean political circles, the speaker of parliament and parliamentary majority leader, and Lee Jae Myong now casually call Yoon "Traitor" in public.

Furthermore, activist shareholders are threatening to sue to block government owned but stock market listed corporations like POSCO and Korail to not make contributions to Yoon's fund.

@samit basu

@KennyG

demanded by not just so-called traitors but by the biggest political party in that nation when even the King was eager to be annexed under either one of the three options.?

This is why Japan needs a history education reform by outsiders. People like you are the proof.

South Korea and its anti-Japan tribalists like yourself, before whatever and however fabricated history text books, need a sense of fairness, conscience. People like you are the proof and the cancer of the problems.

Holocaust??? Like Asian Holocaust??? 

30 million Chinese died at the hands of Imperial Japan say hello to you from after life.

Another version of your dream? Regardless, quoting whatever could possibly have happened on the battle fields wouldn't make you and your ilk's disgusting propaganda real stories. We're here to talk about Japan and the peninsula. Get it through your nose, to hopefully reach your head.