Northeast Asian Neighbors Still Clashing Over Past

What was hailed as an "outstanding victory" for diplomacy by UNESCO's World Heritage Committee chair over the weekend proved to be a little less certain Monday based on comments from South Korean, Chinese and Japanese officials.



Tokyo had on Sunday achieved world heritage status for industrial revolution sites that were also destinations for thousands of forced laborers from its former colonies -- including the Korean Peninsula and parts of China.



The recognition for Japan's facilities came at a price; namely an admission that "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."



But with Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida telling reporters at home that being "forced to work" was not the same as "forced labor," the importance of language to Tokyo became increasingly clear.



Kishida also insisted that the Japanese position on reparations was unchanged, and that all related claims were broadly settled under a 1965 Seoul-Tokyo treaty.



Local news agency Yonhap cited a South Korean foreign ministry official as responding by pointing out that "forced to work" means "forced labor" by international standards.



China's ambassador to UNESCO, Zhang Xiuqin, was "ed by the China Daily as urging Japan to go further and "take concrete measures to allow an understanding of the full history of each site."



Seoul and Beijing share a sense of unfinished business regarding Japanese imperialism -- but time is also running out for those victims who can still remember living under Tokyo's colonial rule.



Much progress needs to be made on the issue of wartime sexual slavery, for example, before anything like a diplomatic victory in that regard can be celebrated.



Another former so-called comfort woman died in South Korea on Sunday at the age of 90, according to the Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan.



Just 48 surviving victims are now known to Seoul -- along with supporters, they still protest every week outside the Japanese Embassy in the South Korean capital, seeking a direct apology.



Tokyo's refusal to give in to their demands has worsened ties to the extent that President Park Geun-hye has so far declined to hold a bilateral summit with her Japanese counterpart Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. - Seoul-t'ukpyolsi