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A participant in a press conference organized by Joint Action for Historical Justice and Peaceful Korea-Japan Relations held at the Korea Press Center in downtown Seoul on March 15 holds up a sign reading “Scrap the humiliating solution to forced mobilization.” (Kim Hye-yun/The Hankyoreh)

On Wednesday, one day before South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol was set to hold a summit with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, the opposition Democratic Party castigated the Yoon administration for “offering tribute” to Japan while failing to insist on an apology or a show of remorse. Korean civic groups also held a press conference to express their grave concerns about Yoon’s plans.

Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung took Yoon to task in a meeting of the party’s Supreme Council at the National Assembly on Wednesday.

“The president’s trip to Japan hasn’t even started, and the only news I’m hearing is that he’s already making one concession after another — throwing in the towel on GSOMIA and writing a blank check on contaminated water from the [Fukushima] nuclear reactor,” Lee said.

“He’s tanking our national reputation. I can almost hear them snickering all the way over in Japan.”

A Democratic Party committee under lawmaker Kim Sang-hee that was organized to counter the Yoon administration’s “humiliating” foreign policy toward Japan held a press conference at the entrance to the War Memorial, in front of the presidential office in Yongsan, to condemn Yoon’s actions.

“Yoon’s compensation plan is an unconstitutional attack on the very foundation of our nation. This will trigger a serious conflict between President Yoon and the Korean people, including the victims of forced labor,” committee members said in the press conference.

There has also been continuing criticism from civil society. Respected members of society and figures representing the environmental movement, women’s rights, organized labor and the legal sector released a statement during a press conference at the Korea Press Center in downtown Seoul that was organized by a group calling itself Joint Action for Historical Justice and Peaceful Korea-Japan Relations.

“We must voice our serious concerns as we watch President Yoon Suk-yeol rushing to Japan like a schoolboy eager to hand in his homework after ignoring the forced labor victims’ demands for the restoration of their human dignity. President Yoon needs to ask Japan for a sincere apology and compensation for historical issues including forced labor and sexual slavery by the Japanese military,” the figures said in the statement.

Lee Man-yeol, former head of the National Institute of Korean History, was among those who attended the press conference.

“The president and the ruling party assert that [the government’s proposed solution] is a bold decision made with the future in mind, but that future is the one desired by members of Japan’s far right. Japan will only grow more brazen in its denial of the crimes associated with its colonial rule. If there are no indications in the meeting of a forward-looking change in Japan’s stance on historical disputes and the Dokdo issue, [the president] should declare the talks to be over. Concessions without benefits will only lead Korea-Japan relations to an even greater rupture,” Lee said.

Joint Action for Historical Justice and Peaceful Korea-Japan Relations is continuing to collect signatures from around the country against the government’s solution to the forced labor issue. The group also plans to hold a nationwide rally at Seoul Plaza, in front of City Hall, on Saturday.

By Shim Wu-sam, staff reporter; Jang Ye-ji, staff reporter

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