South Korea on Tuesday expressed its strong opposition against Japan's move to put its wartime facilities on the UNESCO world heritage list, saying that the move runs counter to the spirit of the list.

Since 2012, Japan has been seeking to put more than 20 industrial facilities such as coal mines, a legacy of Tokyo's forced labor during World War II, on the UNESCO world heritage list. Japan claims that those facilities are a symbol of industrialization in an apparent bid to conceal its wartime aggression.

Seoul's foreign ministry rebuked Japan for trying to put the symbol of its wartime atrocities on the UNESCO world heritage list.

"Seoul has consistently claimed that Japan's move is not in line with the spirit of the UNESCO world heritage list as those facilities are the products of forced labor during the war,"

foreign ministry spokesman Noh Kwang-il said at a press briefing.

Noh said that the Korean government plans to strongly raise this issue at an incoming session of the World Heritage Committee and will consult with other member states about it.

The International Council on Monuments and Sites, a non-government body, has been reviewing Japan's proposal. It is widely expected to provide its recommendations in May to the World Heritage Committee, an inter-government body.

The 21-member committee is expected to decide whether to put the facilities on the UNESCO world heritage list at this year's session to be held between June 28 and July 8. More than two-thirds of the members must vote yes for the proposal to be approved.

Some 23,500 Koreans were forced to work for Japanese companies during World War II, and 901 of them died under harsh working conditions, according to the committee's estimate. (Yonhap)