SEOUL, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's foreign ministry urged Japan to implement its own commitments related to Japan's war-linked gold mine, local broadcaster MBC said Tuesday.
Seoul's foreign ministry said in a statement that Tokyo failed to fully implement the decision of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee (WHC) and its own commitments to reflecting the entire history at the site of the Sado Island Gold Mines, a gold mine on the Sado Island associated with the Korean Peninsula's wartime forced labor.
The statement urged Tokyo to faithfully implement the decision, its own commitments and the agreements between the two countries, saying Seoul would continue to talk with Tokyo about follow-up measures.
South Korea agreed to list the notorious gold mine as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in July 2024 in exchange for Japan's promises such as the one to display the entire history of the heritage site, including the forced mobilization of Koreans during the Japanese colonial period.
Seoul claimed that no mention of the forced labor victims was made at the site.
South Korean historians say thousands of Koreans were forced by Imperial Japan into heavy labor for the gold mine, which was turned into facilities to manufacture war-related materials during World War II, when the Korean Peninsula was under Japan's colonial rule. The mine was shut down in 1989. ■