On the 13th, the North Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs criticized Japan for re-listing Sado Mine as a UNESCO World Heritage site, where Koreans were forcibly mobilized, saying, “They are resolutely denying the bloody crimes of the past.”
On the same day, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a position under the name of researcher Kim Jeong-hyeok of the Institute of Japan, titled “Japan’s shamelessness in denying its past crimes” and said, “The Japanese authorities’ persistent act of denying and distorting the history of Japanese aggression in the past is a Today, it has gone beyond that limit and has come to the point of disturbing the sacred field of discussing the cultural development and social progress of mankind with money,” he said.
“Speaking of the industrial facilities recommended by Japan as a World Cultural Heritage as a ‘symbol of modernization’, it is a place of death where countless Koreans were taken and forced to work as slaves by Japan,” he said. Registering the living evidence of past crimes as a World Cultural Heritage, the common treasure of mankind, is absurd in itself, and it is an insult to human civilization and cannot help but be ridiculed.”
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, “The international community has already sounded an alarm at the inappropriate treatment of the Japanese authorities in recommending the Sado Mine as a World Heritage Site.” “Japan’s behavior of skillfully mixing, distorting, and erasing information deserves condemnation from the international community,” he pointed out.
“Japan’s extra-large crimes against humanity, such as the Japanese military sexual slavery system, the forced mobilization and forced labor of Koreans, and the Nanjing Massacre, will never go away even with the passing of time or the use of mauve, and the statute of limitations does not apply to them,” he said. Sado Mine, the scene of the crime, can never be nominated as a World Heritage site.”
Meanwhile, the South Korean government organized a UNESCO World Heritage-related institutional council and held its first meeting earlier this month to respond to Japan’s re-application for World Heritage listing of the Sado Mine.
Japan is working to register Sado Mine as a World Heritage Site in 2024.
Source: Donga
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.