Representative of South Korea’s two umbrella labor groups -- the Federation of Korean Trade Unions and the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, set up a similar statue at the Tanba Manganese Memorial Hall, which is dedicated to Korean forced workers, in the Japanese city of Tanba, northern Kyoto Prefecture, in 2016. But such a statue has yet to be installed in South Korea.

The planned installation comes after South Korean civic activists moved earlier this year to erect statues symbolizing Korean victims of forced labor near Japanese diplomatic missions, which will likely be a development to irk Tokyo.

In April this year, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga called the civic group‘s move to install a statue for forced labor a “big problem,” saying Tokyo has expressed a strong objection. He called on Seoul to take necessary action through diplomatic channels.

Japan ruled the Korean Peninsula from 1910 to 1945 during which historians say that millions of Koreans were coerced into labor.

They also estimate that up to 200,000 women, mostly from Korea, were forced to work in front-line brothels for Japanese troops during World War II. (Yonhap)