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Participants in a nationwide rally on March 11 condemning Seoul’s “degrading” solution to forced mobilization compensation and calling for apology and compensation by Japan hold up signs as they sit in front of a statue in Seoul Plaza representing victims of forced labor. (Kim Hye-yun/The Hankyoreh)

A large demonstration was held at Seoul Plaza, near City Hall, denouncing the South Korean government’s solution to a Supreme Court ruling that awarded damages to victims of forced labor during the Japanese colonial period. Demonstrators also called on Japan to apologize to the victims and compensate them directly.

A group calling itself Joint Action for Historical Justice and Peaceful Korea-Japan Relations held a second nationwide rally on the eastern side of Seoul Plaza on Saturday afternoon.

The rally site, measuring around 200 square meters, was filled with demonstrators holding placards saying that the Yoon administration should be held to account for its “humiliating” foreign policy and declaring the compensation plan invalid.

“Revoke this humiliating solution to the forced labor issue,” some chanted. “Japan needs to apologize and pay compensation for forced labor during its colonial rule.”

Participants in a nationwide rally on March 11 condemn Seoul’s “degrading” solution to forced mobilization compensation and call for an apology and compensation by Japan hold up signs in Seoul Plaza. (Kim Hye-yun/The Hankyoreh)

Demonstrators objected that the Yoon administration has misled the public with its solution to the Supreme Court’s ruling granting the right to seek damages, which makes a mockery of the forced labor victims.

Photographs of the rally, which was held on the first weekend after the Yoon administration announced its solution to the forced labor issue, are displayed below.

Participants in a nationwide rally on March 11 condemn Seoul’s “degrading” solution to forced mobilization compensation and call for an apology and compensation by Japan hold up signs in Seoul Plaza. (Kim Hye-yun/The Hankyoreh)

Leaders from the Democratic Party, including Lee Jae-myung (center), and Justice Party leader Lee Jeong-mi (far left), take part in the March 11 rally in Seoul Plaza denouncing the Yoon administration’s plan for compensating forced laborers. (Kim Hye-yun/The Hankyoreh)

Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Democratic Party, speaks at a rally on March 11 in Seoul Plaza condemning Seoul’s “degrading” solution to forced mobilization compensation and calling for apology and compensation by Japan. (Kim Hye-yun/The Hankyoreh)

By Kim Hye-yun, staff reporter

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