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Kim Jung-han

In South Korea-Japan director-general level diplomatic talks, the Japanese government reiterated its demand that Seoul refer the matter of forced labor conscription during Japan’s colonial occupation of Korea to an arbitration committee.

According to the Nikkei newspaper, the Japanese government made the demand during talks between Kenji Kanasugi, director-general of the Japanese Foreign Ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, and Kim Jung-han, director-general for Asian and Pacific Affairs at the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on June 5. The talks were held at the Japanese Foreign Ministry headquarters in Tokyo and lasted around three hours.

On May 20, the Japanese government demanded an arbitration committee regarding a South Korean Supreme Court ruling instructing Japanese companies to pay compensation to victims of forced labor conscription, arguing that the ruling was in violation of the two sides’ Claims Settlement Agreement. That agreement includes a provision stating that disputes in relation to the agreement may be referred to an arbitration committee with representatives from South Korea, Japan, and a third country. But the arbitration committee cannot be formed if one of the parties refuses. Japanese media reported that South Korea had not given a clear answer in response to Japan’s referral demand.

According to the South Korean Ministry of Affairs, Kim insisted during the meeting that “the intensified seafood inspection measures announced by the Japanese government on May 30 should not be used as a camouflaged discriminatory measure against South Korean seafood.” The Japanese government has been stepping up its inspections of seafood imports, moving on May 30 to double the South Korean flounder inspection rate from 20% to 40% as of June. While the Japanese government insisted that the measure was not intended as retaliation for Japan’s loss in a WTO case regarding South Korea’s ban on seafood imports from Fukushima and surrounding areas, Japanese media read it “essentially as an act of defiance.” Regarding the increased South Korean seafood inspections, Kanasugi was quoted by the NHK network as saying the measure was “intended to prevent food poisoning, not to target any specific country.”

By Cho Ki-weon, Tokyo correspondent

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