Two South Korean business lobbies have each donated 1.5 billion won ($1.05 million) to the public foundation responsible for compensating Korean victims of Japan's wartime forced labor, people familiar with the matter said Monday.
The Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Federation of Korean Industries made the donations earlier this month to the Japanese Forced Mobilization Victims Support Foundation under the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, people with knowledge of the matter said.
The foundation was created in 2014 under the government of former President Park Geun-hye to handle the payments and delayed interest in accordance with South Korea's Supreme Court rulings that found Japanese companies were responsible for the compensation.
Many Koreans were taken to toil in Japanese mines and factories during World War II, when Korea was under Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule.
While Japanese firms refused to comply with the rulings, the Yoon Suk Yeol government announced a decision in March 2023 that it will compensate the victims on its own and without contributions from Japan, a move that led to a dramatic warming of bilateral relations.
Yoon called for voluntary donations from Japanese companies to the foundation, but no donations have been made. South Korea's steel giant Posco has donated 6 billion won.
The latest donations from the business lobbies are expected to help secure stable funding for the compensation, a Seoul official said. (Yonhap)
