hankyoreh

Screen capture of the Change.org petition urging the US government to withdraw support for South Korea’s plan for resolving the issue of Japan’s wartime forced mobilization.

As South Korean civic groups and survivors of forced labor during the Japanese colonial period continue voicing their opposition to the government’s solution to the forced labor issue leading up to the Korea-Japan summit, contrary voices are also being raised outside of Korea. Korean Americans in particular are calling on US President Joe Biden to retract his support for the Korean government’s plan, which he said he welcomes.

“We are very concerned about the current US position on the South Korea-Japan relationship issue,” wrote a 53-year-old Korean American named Linda Lee in a petition posted to change.org, the world’s largest petition website, on Tuesday.

“We urge the US government to withdraw support for the Yoon Seok-yeol government’s shameful and anti-democratic approach that ignores the rights and demands of citizens and victims in the South Korea-Japan relationship solution,” Lee said in the petition.

As of 1:30 pm Wednesday, the petition had been signed by 580 people. Some signees described the Yoon administration’s solution as being “unfair,” “against justice,” and a “ridiculous way to resolve” the issue.

Linda Lee, the petitioner, said her next step would be sending an open letter by email to Biden at the White House.

Lee, a Korean American who lives in Los Angeles, told the Hankyoreh on Wednesday that it was absurd for the victims of forced labor to be compensated with money from Korean companies, rather than from the Japanese perpetrator companies.

Lee said there needs to be more engagement and protests in Korea to defend the country’s national interest and sovereignty. She plans to keep promoting the petition with the goal of collecting 100,000 signatures by April 26, when Yoon is scheduled to visit the US.

“Today’s announcements between the Republic of Korea and Japan mark a groundbreaking new chapter of cooperation and partnership between two of the United States’ closest allies,” Biden said in a statement on March 5 welcoming the Korean government’s announcement of a solution to the forced labor issue.

Yoon is in Japan on Thursday and Friday to hold a summit with the Japanese prime minister. During the summit, the two leaders are planning to discuss ways to normalize their countries’ relationship, such as by implementing a solution to the forced labor issue.

By Ko byung-chan, staff reporter

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]