Korean forced labor victim accepts 'third-party' compensation

Yang Geum-deok, an elderly Korean victim of Japan's wartime forced labor, speaks at the National Assembly in Yeongdeungpo District, Seoul, March 13, 2023. Yonhap An elderly Korean victim of Japan's wartime forced labor, known for her rejection of a government-led compensation plan that excludes responsible Japanese firms, has accepted the reparation package, a victims' advocate group and the foreign ministry said Wednesday. Yang Geum-deok, one of the 15 original plaintiffs that won the 2018 Supreme Court ruling on the compensation, received the payment and the delayed interest from the government-affiliated public fund handling the reparations, according to the group and the ministry.

Yang was the 12th plaintiff to accept the compensation package. Eleven others have received the payments under the "third-party" reimbursement plan created by the Yoon Suk Yeol government in March last year. Yoon, with a strong policy drive to improve ties with Tokyo, announced that Korea will compensate the victims with donations from Korean companies that had benefited from the 1965 post-war bilateral treaty with Japan, and that any contributions from Japanese companies will be voluntary.



In October 2018, Korea's top court ordered Nippon Steel and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to pay compensation to the Korean victims for mobilizing them into hard labor at Japanese factories and mines during World War II, when Korea was under Japan's colonial rule. Japan has refused to comply with the court rulings, insisting that all matters of compensation were settled under the 1965 treaty that normalized bilateral ties. Yang was one of the few victims who rejected the government's compensation plan.

Despite Seoul's call for voluntary involvement from Japanese companies, no donations from Japan have been made and the public foundation handling the compensation remains underfunded. The civic group representing victims of forced mobilization under Japanese occupation said in a statement Wednesday that it was uncertain whether Yang's decision was made of her own will and is investigating how the decision was reached. The group said Yang has been hospitalized at a nursing facility since November last year.

(Yonhap).