Japan and South Korea lodged protests with each other Thursday over their views on Tokyo's recent nomination for the 2023 UNESCO World Heritage list of a gold and silver mine site, which Seoul says is linked to wartime Korean labor.
South Korean Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong expressed "deep disappointment and protest" when he held phone talks with his Japanese counterpart Yoshimasa Hayashi over Tokyo's attempt to register the mine on Sado Island in Niigata Prefecture on the Sea of Japan coast, according to the South Korean Foreign Ministry.
Chung said Japan has not faced up to the history of wartime Korean laborers during the country's 1910-45 colonization of the Korean Peninsula, demanding Japan actively seek a solution acceptable to the Korean victims, the ministry said.