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Honolulu– The foreign ministers of Japan and South Korea remained apart on Saturday over Tokyos choice of a former gold and silver mine as a UNESCO World Heritage candidate in spite of Seouls objection due to what it states was the mines usage of forced wartime Korean laborers.Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi, during the 40-minute talks in Hawaii with his South Korean counterpart, Chung Eui-yong, repeated his view that Seouls objection to the listing of the mine on Sado Island in the Sea of Japan is unacceptable, according to the Japanese Foreign Ministry.The two ministers remained in Hawaii for a three-way meeting also involving U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken the same day to talk about North Koreas rocket and nuclear risk in the wake of its repeated screening of ballistic rockets this year.Hayashi included that Japan is prepared to have extensive and candid conversations with South Korea over its quote to sign up the mine, one of the worlds largest manufacturers of gold in the 17th century, on the 2023 UNESCO World Heritage list, the Japanese ministry said.According to the South Korean federal government, Chung repeated his nations objection, stating “correct recognition of history” is the structure of a “future-oriented” bilateral relationship.Japan-South Korean ties have actually already sunk to their most affordable point in years following South Korean Supreme Court judgments in 2018 that purchased Japanese business to compensate groups of South Koreans for required labor throughout Japans 1910-1945 colonial guideline of the Korean Peninsula.Japan preserves the problem of payment was settled by a 1965 bilateral agreement that sought to settle problems connected to home and claims coming from its colonial rule.Tokyos recommendation of the Sado Mine was approved by Prime Minister Fumio Kishidas Cabinet on Feb. 1, and the government submitted a letter of recommendation to the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization the same day.Hayashi informed Chung that relations remain strained due to the fact that of the relocate to require payment for wartime workers and so-called convenience ladies, the women and females who were forced or pushed into Japans wartime whorehouse system, and asked Seoul to react to the moves properly, the Japanese ministry said.Meanwhile, the 2 ministers pledged to facilitate interaction to gain back a healthy relationship and settled on the value of bilateral and trilateral cooperation, including with Washington, to deal with North Korea, according to the ministry.Hayashi and Chung last met face to face in December when they briefly chatted at a casual supper celebration at a Group of Seven foreign ministerial meeting in Liverpool, England, to which Seoul was invited as a visitor. They held phone talks on Feb. 3.
