The South Korean government on Monday announced a formal proposed solution to a long-running wartime forced labour row with Japan, local media reported.
South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin proposed compensating 15 Koreans, who won legal battles against two Japanese firms accused of mobilizing them for forced labour during World War II, through a public foundation backed by the government in Seoul, rather than a payment from the responsible Japanese firms, news agency Yonhap reported.
In October 2018, South Korea's Supreme Court ordered Japanese companies Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Nippon Steel to compensate South Korean victims of wartime forced labour during Japan's 1910-1945 colonization of the Korean Peninsula.
During Japan's colonial rule over Korea, and particularly during World War II, Japanese companies are estimated to have forced hundreds of thousands of Koreans to work without pay in harsh and dangerous conditions.
Tokyo has been arguing that the issue of compensation was settled once and for all by the 1965 Normalization Treaty, under which Japan paid South Korea compensation for its colonial occupation and diplomatic relations between the two countries were re-established.
The issue of compensation for forced labourers has strained relations between South Korea and Japan for many years.
The proposed scheme would see the Foundation for Victims of Forced Mobilization, which is affiliated with South Korea's Interior Ministry, pay the plaintiffs in the Supreme Court case, rather than the Japanese companies.
The funds are set to be collected from "voluntary" donations from the private sector, Yonhap reported. South Korean media reported that contributions were expected from companies that benefitted from the 1965 treaty.
The scheme would also see other plaintiffs with pending cases compensated through the foundation, which was created in 2014.