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Japan says no individual reparations to Korean victims of colonial rule
TOKYO, March 18 (Yonhap) -- Japan's foreign ministry said Thursday there won't be any individual reparations to victims of the country's brutal colonial rule of Korea, insisting that a 1965 government-level deal between Seoul and Tokyo addressed all compensation issues.
That position contrasts with a 1965 Japanese foreign ministry document reported by Yonhap News Agency on Sunday. The internal ministry document showed that Japan understood at the time of signing the pact that it covers only government-level compensation, unrelated to the claims of individuals.
The revelations had raised hope that the declassified document may affect a series of lawsuits that Korean victims of forced labor or sexual enslavement have filed to seek reparations for their suffering.
Despite the document, however, Japan's foreign ministry insisted Thursday in response to questions from Yonhap News that the 1965 pact put a final end to all compensation issues "completely" and that claims of individual compensation will be rejected even if lawsuits are filed.
The ministry also said it is unclear what the 1965 internal document was referring to.
Asked whether Japan is willing to make public all other documents related to the 1965 pact, the ministry said it will "respond appropriately according to related laws."
The response marked the first time since 1992 that Japan has officially mentioned its position to the South Korean media on compensation for individual victims of the colonial rule.
South Korea normalized diplomatic relations with Japan in 1965 after receiving US$800 million in grants and soft loans from Tokyo as compensation for the country's 1910-45 colonial rule. More than a million Koreans were believed to have been conscripted into the workforce and the military, or were forced into sexual enslavement at frontline brothels.
Japan's latest rebuttal of individual compensation claims came as the countries seek to improve their often-prickly relations this year on the centennial of the colonial rule.
Japan has often angered South Korea and other neighboring nations after leading politicians or the government made remarks or engaged in acts seen as glorifying the country's imperialist past.
Such instances fueled the belief among many South Koreans that the former colonial ruler has yet to fully atone for its past despite a number of apologies it has made.
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