Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yeol Calls Japan's Sado Mine 'Humiliating Diplomacy' Criticism "Unfair"

"We Did Our Best to Protect National Interests"

Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yeol attended the Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee plenary meeting held at the National Assembly on the afternoon of the 13th, providing a proposal explanation on the 2023 fiscal year Ministry of Foreign Affairs revenue and expenditure settlement and the use of contingency funds.
[Photo by Yonhap News]

Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yeol responded to criticism that South Korea engaged in "humiliating diplomacy" during the process of registering the Sado Mine in Japan, a site of forced labor of Koreans during the Japanese colonial period, as a UNESCO World Heritage site, calling it "unfair criticism."

Minister Cho made these remarks on the afternoon of the 13th during a plenary session of the National Assembly's Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee in response to a related question from Kim Tae-ho, a member of the People Power Party.

He emphasized, "I clearly stated that we cannot advance the negotiations by retreating (from the 2015 negotiations on Hashima Island) and sat at the negotiation table," adding, "We did not give up on the aspect of coercion in the negotiations."

Minister Cho explained, "I am confident that there has been progress in securing Japan's implementation measures," and said, "If the coercion aspect had been removed, we would not have even sat at this table."

He further stated, "Our goal should be to secure substantial implementation measures, leave records in history, and based on that, accumulate different historical records if similar issues arise in the future," adding, "I believe opposing the registration should not become our goal."

In particular, Minister Cho said, "If we oppose the registration as if venting public anger and self-destructing, is that really good for national interests...," and added, "With such deep consideration, we did our utmost to protect national interests until the end."

Earlier, the Sado Mine was registered as a World Heritage site by consensus (unanimous agreement) at the UNESCO meeting on the 27th of last month.

The government agreed to the registration on the condition of pre-installing exhibits related to Korean laborers and holding annual memorial ceremonies for the workers. However, criticism arose that the South Korean government engaged in "humiliating diplomacy" toward Japan after expressions such as "forced" were omitted from the explanatory panels of the exhibits in Japan.