Japanese Media: South Korea Unlikely to Attend Sado Mine Memorial Ceremony This Year, Marking Third Consecutive Year

▲ The 'Sado Mine Memorial Ceremony' held in 2025

Japan is coordinating to hold the Sado Mine memorial ceremony on the 12th, and South Korea is reportedly expected not to participate this year as well, NHK reported on the 3rd.

According to the report, the executive committee consisting of Niigata Prefecture, where the Sado Mine is located, and local civic groups is coordinating to hold this year's Sado Mine memorial ceremony on the 12th.

According to sources, Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has continued coordination with the South Korean side regarding attendance at this year's memorial ceremony, but the South Korean side is reportedly planning to boycott it for the third consecutive year, NHK reported.

The memorial ceremony was a commitment made by Japan to gain South Korea's cooperation when it pushed for the registration of the Sado Mine as a UNESCO World Heritage site in July 2024, after South Korea demanded that the full history, including the forced labor of Koreans, be reflected.

However, while preparing for the inaugural memorial ceremony in 2024, Japan showed major differences in opinion with South Korea over the event's name and memorial address. Consequently, the memorial ceremony held in Sado City on November 24 of that year turned into a "half-baked" event as South Korean bereaved families and government officials sat it out.

During the second memorial ceremony last year, the South Korean side also did not attend because the Japanese memorial address failed to properly include the coercive nature of the mobilization of Korean workers.

The South Korean government held its own separate memorial ceremonies in both 2024 and last year.

The Sado Mine was famous as a gold mine during the Edo period (1603–1867) and was later utilized as a mine to secure wartime supplies after the Pacific War intensified.

During this time, colonial Koreans were forcibly mobilized and forced to work under harsh conditions while facing discrimination.

Its registration as a UNESCO World Heritage site was decided at the 46th session of the World Heritage Committee held in New Delhi, India, in July 2024.

Prior to the registration, the South Korean government demanded that Japan reflect the "entire history" of the Sado Mine, including the forced labor of Koreans, and Japan accepted this.

However, criticisms have since been raised that the fact of forced labor has not been sufficiently expressed.

The decision adopted at the 48th session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee held in Busan last July also evaluated that while there has been "some progress" by the Japanese side in implementing the World Heritage Committee's recommendation to establish interpretation and exhibition strategies reflecting the "entire history" of the Sado Mine, it is not sufficient.

(Photo: Yonhap News)

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