Japan, S. Korea to study companies’ fund to ease wartime forced labor issue

The South Korean and Japanese governments are studying plans for a joint economic program, involving companies from both countries, which aims to ease strains over the issue of forced Korean labor during the Second World War, Kyodo reported on Monday.

The Japanese government will not provide any money to the program, in line with its position that claims over forced labor were settled in a 1965 treaty, according to the report.

In June, Seoul proposed a joint fund with Japan to compensate South Koreans forced to work by Japanese companies during the war, but Japan rejected the idea out of hand at that time.

The new program would be set up to help drive economic development between the two nations, but it would not involve any compensation for South Koreans.