What was billed as a landmark diplomatic victory for both South Korea and Japan has turned out to be a reminder of the wide gap between the neighbors over their perceptions of shared history.

On Saturday, two dozen old industrial facilities were given UNESCO-designated world heritage status after Japan accepted South Korea's demand to acknowledge that Koreans were forced to work at seven of the sites during World War II. The South Korean government put the number of workers at around 57,000.

"There was 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's ambassador to UNESCO Kuni Sato stated Sunday in English during the annual session of the World Heritage Committee.

Maria Bohmer, Germany's vice foreign minister who chairs the committee, called the Seoul-Tokyo deal a trust-based "outstanding victory" for diplomacy.

South Korean media also described Tokyo's acknowledgment of such a bitter history unprecedented on the global stage.

But the positive mood did not last even for a day.

Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida drew a line between the diplomatic rhetoric and his government's basic view of history.

He told reporters that the UNESCO statement does not mean that there was actually "forced labor" that violated international law.

He labeled the victims as "requisitioned workers" during Japan's colonial rule of Korea in the early 1900s.

"There is no change whatsoever to the position that the issues relating to property claims between Japan and South Korea, including the issue of requisitioned workers from the Korean Peninsula, have been settled" under the 1965 treaty to normalize bilateral ties, he was quoted as saying by local media.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said later that tens of thousands of Koreans who toiled at seven of the new world heritage sites did not involve forced labor prohibited under the Forced Labor Convention of the International Labor Organization.

The 1932 convention says, "The term forced or compulsory labor shall mean any work for service which is exacted from any person under the menace of any penalty and for which the said person has not offered himself voluntarily."

Japan reportedly plans to step up diplomatic efforts to publicize its position on the issue.

South Korean officials said Japan appears to be trying to interpret the rule for its own advantage due to political reasons. 

A number of suits are underway in South Korea and abroad against Japanese firms that forcibly conscripted Koreans and others to work at their coal mines, shipyards and steelmills during Japan's imperialist past.

Japan's claim is apparently based on its perception that its

1910-45 annexation of Korea was legitimate.

The South Korean government sought not to overreact to Japan's own interpretation of the UNESCO document, formally reiterating the English version is official.

"It means by international standards and practice that there was forced labor," a Foreign Ministry official said on background.

"According to ILO's home page, forced labor refers to situations in which persons are coerced to work."

He stressed, "There's no room and need for more debates."

The ministry posted Japan's English-language statement and other related materials on its website, www.mofa.go.kr. (Yonhap)