President Yoon Seok-yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida decided to pay their respects together at the ‘Cenotaph for Korean Atomic Bomb Victims’ on the occasion of attending the G7 Summit held in Hiroshima, Japan on the 19th and 21st. The president’s office said that among them were Korean victims of forced labor during the Japanese colonial era. The day before, Prime Minister Kishida, who said of the victims of forced labor, “I went through very painful and sad things in a harsh environment,” means that the fact that Prime Minister Kishida pays his respects at the memorial monument includes the nature of commemorating the victims of forced labor.
In a briefing held at the Yongsan Presidential Office on the same day, an official from the presidential office said, “Among those who were sacrificed in Hiroshima, there are many who were actually taken for forced labor.” It makes sense,” he said. It is known that the names of the victims of forced labor who worked at the Hiroshima Works at the time of the atomic bombing have been identified. A high-ranking official in the presidential office assessed that “the leaders of South Korea and Japan will bow their heads to comfort the victims of forced labor and prepare for the future together.” The monument was built to commemorate the 20,000 Koreans who lost their lives during the atomic bombing.
Prime Minister Kishida returned home after completing a two-day, one-night visit on the 8th and said, “I want to further strengthen the relationship of trust with President Yoon and join forces to open a new era.” I was able to deepen it,” he said.
President Yoon also presided over the meeting of senior secretaries and asked for “thorough follow-up measures regarding security, industry, science and technology, culture, and future generation exchanges discussed at the Korea-Japan summit.” President Yoon is also known to have evaluated Prime Minister Kishida’s laying of flowers and burning incense at the National Cemetery in Dongjak-gu, Seoul, where Korean independence fighters are buried, as a “great development (of relations between the two countries).” Presidential Office Spokesperson Lee Do-woon said, “In this meeting, Prime Minister Kishida showed that the Japanese government’s efforts to open the hearts of Koreans have begun.”
Source: Donga
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