The plan unveiled today seeks to collect “voluntary” donations from companies such as South Korean steelmaker Posco, which was a major beneficiary of Japan’s 1965 aid package.
The Japanese authorities defend that all the compensations in this field were resolved based on that bilateral treaty.
Documents from the time show that Tokyo sought to arrange for this compensation to reach the victims directly, but the South Korean government—at that time in the hands of coup general Park Chung-hee—insisted on managing such aid.
These ended up being used to finance Posco, one of the largest South Korean companies, or for the construction of the country’s main highway.
The Japanese government assured this Monday that, in any case, it will allow Japanese companies to make donations to the compensation mechanism, although it is not clear what its final use will be.
One of the victims, Yang Geum-deok, told the Yonhap news agency that they have to apologize first. “I will not accept money that looks like begging,” she said.
Lee Jae-myung, leader of South Korea’s main opposition party, the liberal Democratic Party (PD), accused the government of “betraying historical justice” with its proposal and criticized the Japanese apology for going through the “repeat of old declarations”, like the one from 1998.
With information from AFP and EFE
