Seoul has confirmed records of 64,279 Korean forced laborers from the 1910-45 Japanese colonial era who have yet to be paid, a government panel said Wednesday, opening the way for the laborers and their relatives to receive compensation.
The payroll recorded by Japanese companies contains names of workers and the amounts of unpaid wages totalling 35.1 million yen (US$419,000), according to the committee overseeing the research and support for Korean
victims of the Japanese forced labor. The amount corresponds to about 590 million yen in today's value when the inflation rate between 1947 and 2008 is reflected.
The number, however, falls significantly short of an estimated 600,000 to 800,000 Koreans who are believed to have been forced into labor by the Japanese. Records are hard to come by, as most have been destroyed or are being kept in Japan.
In March, Japan handed over 175,000 documents on forced laborers, which the committee analyzed to arrive at Wednesday's conclusion. But committee officials said more than 60 percent of the documents overlap with previous
ones on soldiers and military officials disclosed in 2007. The previous records had details on 35,088 Koreans hired at 696 workplaces.
The new records, however, are still expected to allow more victims and their families to receive compensation from the government, which had
withheld compensation citing lack of evidence. A total of 3,698 forced laborers and surviving families have applied for reparations since September 2008.
The committee will use the records to determine the victims and their families and to decide whether they are eligible for monetary compensation, officials said.
Most of the unpaid wages had been deposited with Japanese banks, but Tokyo refuses to compensate victims of its colonial rule, insisting that all monetary reparations have been covered by a 1965 agreement in which Seoul received US$800 million in grants and soft loans.