Japan to send its parliamentary vice minister to Sado mine memorial

This photo shows the Sado gold and silver mine complex on Sado Island in Niigata Prefecture, Japan, July 28. Yonhap A Japanese vice minister will attend the upcoming memorial ceremony for wartime forced labor victims, including Koreans, who were taken to toil at a Japanese mine complex during World War II, Japan's foreign ministry said Friday. Akiko Ikuina, parliamentary vice minister at Japan's foreign ministry, will be at the ceremony, scheduled to take place on western Sado Island, off its west coast, on Sunday.

Japan announced Wednesday it will hold the memorial event to commemorate the victims from the Sado gold and silver mine complex, fulfilling its pledge to hold such a ceremony as a condition for Seoul's consent to the location's designation as a UNESCO World Heritage site. Attention has been drawn to who will be attending the ceremony from the Japanese central government, as South Korea has regarded the level of the official attending the event as a factor that would demonstrate Tokyo's sincerity about its promise to honor the victims. Korean Ambassador to Japan Park Cheol-hee and a director general from the foreign ministry in Seoul are expected to attend the ceremony, according to a diplomatic source.



The event has been organized by a regional committee led by the Sado city government. The Sado mines are where many Koreans were forced into hard labor under Japan's colonial rule of Korea. (Yonhap).