NIIGATA, Japan - South Korea's government will not attend for the third straight year a memorial ceremony for laborers, including those from the Korean Peninsula, who worked at the gold and silver mine complex on Japan's Sado Island during World War II, Japanese officials said Wednesday.
The move, which was also announced by South Korea's Foreign Ministry, comes as the two countries remain divided over the wording of the memorial remarks. The ceremony will be held Saturday at the Sado Island Gold Mines, a UNESCO World Heritage site in Niigata Prefecture, to honor all of the workers, including those from the Korean Peninsula.
In both 2024 and 2025, South Korean government officials and workers' relatives who traveled to Japan stayed away from the Japanese-organized ceremony and instead held separate memorials on the island after the two sides failed to agree over Japan's reluctance to use the term "forced labor" in the memorial remarks.
The South Korean side informed Tokyo on Tuesday that it would not participate, according to Japan's Foreign Ministry.
"Japan and South Korea were unable to bridge their differences over the wording of the memorial address," a ministry official said, adding, "It appears the South Korean side will hold its own memorial again this year."
At a regular press conference, Niigata Gov. Hideyo Hanazumi declined to comment on Seoul's decision and said his prefecture has no plans to urge South Korea to attend.
Japan pledged to hold an annual memorial for workers at the site as part of efforts to secure its inscription on UNESCO's World Heritage list in July 2024. South Korea had initially opposed the listing over the treatment of Korean laborers at the mine.
South Korea has demanded that Japan clearly recognize the forced nature of wartime labor involving Koreans at the site, while Japan, which colonized Korea from 1910 to 1945, maintains that wartime requisition does not constitute forced labor under international law.
