Seoul fails to bring Japan's forced labor issue to fore at UNESCO

Korea Herald

07-07-2025

South Korea has failed to place Japan's failure to address colonial-era forced labor at UNESCO-listed Meiji Industrial Revolution sites on UNESCO's official discussion agenda.
The outcome was marked by tense negotiations with Tokyo and behind-the-scenes efforts to rally international support, particularly from the 21-member World Heritage Committee under UNESCO.
South Korea initially proposed discussing the issue during the 47th session of the World Heritage Committee held on Monday in Paris. Japan later submitted an amendment to exclude the issue from discussion, which was eventually put to a vote.
Of the 21 committee members, there were eight blank ballots, three invalid ballots, seven votes in favor of Japan's amendment to exclude the issue from discussion and three votes against.
With a simple majority of six required, Japan's proposed amendment was adopted.
The vote followed Seoul and Tokyo's inability to narrow their differences over whether Japan's neglect of its 2015 public commitment to address the history of forced mobilization of Koreans at UNESCO-inscribed sites should be included as an official agenda item at this year's session.
"We regret that the necessary votes for the adoption of the agenda were ultimately not secured," the Korean Foreign Ministry said in a statement following the vote.
The UNESCO vote marked the first time the longstanding dispute between Seoul and Tokyo over historical issues stemming from Japan's occupation of the Korean Peninsula from 1910 to 1945 was voted on at the committee.
During the session Monday, the South Korean government delegation reiterated its position that Japan's failure to fulfill the commitments it made in 2015 — when 23 sites from Japan's Meiji Industrial Revolution were added to UNESCO's World Heritage List — should be discussed with UNESCO.
Among the 23 sites, Koreans were forcibly mobilized at seven — including the coal mines on Japan's Hashima Island, also known as Battleship Island.
Japan maintained its claim that the issue should be addressed bilaterally between Seoul and Tokyo, not on the UNESCO platform.
In 2015, Japan pledged to 'take measures that allow an understanding that there were a large number of Koreans and others who were brought against their will and forced to work under harsh conditions in the 1940s at some of the sites.'
Japan also promised to 'incorporate appropriate measures into the interpretive strategy to remember the victims, such as the establishment of an information center.'
How vote started
South Korea had additional hurdles to clear in raising the issue as an official agenda item at this year's meeting because Japan's upholding its UNESCO pledge was not automatically included on the World Heritage Committee's official agenda.
In the resolution adopted in 2023, the WHC did not request a formal SOC report from Japan regarding its fulfillment of the commitments made at the Meiji Industrial Revolution sites. Such a report is a prerequisite for placing the related issue on the committee's official agenda for the following session.
The 2023 resolution was adopted at a time when South Korea was not among the 21 members of the World Heritage Committee, but Japan was.
In contrast, in past resolutions on the same matter adopted in 2015, 2018 and 2021, the WHC formally requested Japan submit SOC reports. As a result, Japan's failure to uphold its pledge was discussed as an official agenda item.
Japan used the 2023 resolution technicality to claim the issue should not be included as an official agenda item at this year's session — a position South Korea firmly rejected.
'The South Korean government finds Japan's argument completely unconvincing,' a Foreign Ministry official said on condition of anonymity. 'While it is true that the 2023 resolution does not state that the update submitted by Japan is subject to review by the World Heritage Committee, there is also no rule that says it cannot be discussed at the committee.'
In Seoul's view, a fundamental principle and rule of the World Heritage Committee is that any issue should be brought to the table if a member state believes there is a problem with the implementation of a decision concerning a specific heritage site.
'Therefore, we requested that this matter be added to the provisional agenda so that it could be discussed by the committee,' the official said.
The official explained that, 'After months of back-and-forth, the UNESCO Secretariat ultimately agreed and circulated the document listing the item as part of the provisional agenda to member states on June 12.'
Provisional agenda items are typically adopted through consensus at the World Heritage Committee session. But in this case, Japan proposed an amendment to exclude South Korea's proposed provisional agenda during the session, effectively nullifying South Korea's original proposal.