South Korea again plans to skip Japan’s Sado mine memorial ceremony, Japanese media reports

South Korea plans to stay away from Japan’s Sado mine memorial ceremony again this year, Japanese broadcaster NHK reported, keeping alive a dispute over how the site’s wartime history should be remembered.

The ceremony honors workers who died at the mine, including people from the Korean Peninsula who were forcibly mobilized during Japan’s colonial rule. NHK, citing sources, said Japan’s Foreign Ministry had coordinated with the South Korean government but that Seoul had decided not to attend for a third straight year.

Research on the Sado mine indicates that more than 1,500 Korean workers were forcibly mobilized there between 1940 and 1945. They performed dangerous work such as drilling rock and installing supports underground under violent surveillance. Records describe long working schedules, attempted escapes that led to imprisonment, and deaths in falls, elevator accidents, electrical accidents and blasting incidents.

Japan agreed in 2024, as part of Sado mine’s UNESCO World Heritage inscription, to present the site’s full history, including the forced mobilization of Korean workers, and to hold an annual memorial ceremony. South Korea accepted the arrangement and supported the inscription. But Seoul says Japan’s memorial addresses over the past two years did not acknowledge forced mobilization, and that an exhibition at the Aikawa Local Museum on Sado Island contains no reference to forced labor.

South Korea declined to attend the first ceremony in 2024 and held its own event on Sado Island. It did the same last year, organizing a separate ceremony with victims’ families in November after Japan held its event in September. UNESCO adopted a decision in July calling on Japan to reflect the full history, including Korean forced labor, and submit an additional report by December 1, 2027. Japan says it has seriously and faithfully carried out the commitments made when the mine received World Heritage status.