Authorities block installation of statue in front of Japanese consulate in Busan that memorialises Korean workers forcibly taken to Japan during colonial rule
Labour group members clashed with police in the South Korean city of Busan on Tuesday as they sought to erect a statue symbolising labourers who were forcibly taken to Japan during its rule over the Korean Peninsula between 1910 and 1945.
The group also held a rally in the afternoon, joined by thousands of people, demanding the installation of the bronze statue of a gaunt man in front of the Japanese Consulate General in South Korea’s second-largest city.
With the South Korean government calling on the labour organisation to place the figure at a different location, the police ended up encircling the statue on a pavement not far from the diplomatic mission, while hundreds more gathered outside the consulate.
If brought to the consulate, the statue is certain to add to friction between South Korea and Japan, which have been at odds over historical issues including a protracted row over Korean women who were coerced to work at Japan’s wartime military brothels
After failing to force their way through the police outside, the group members said they would give up. It was unclear whether the group would make another attempt.
Tokyo, citing diplomatic protocol, has objected to the installation of the statue in front of the consulate, where a life-size statue depicting a girl representing Korean “comfort women” – locals who were forced into sexual slavery by Japanese soldiers during the occupation – already stands.
When the “comfort woman” statue was erected in late 2016 by a different civic group, the Japanese government temporarily recalled Japan’s consul general in Busan, along with the Japanese ambassador to South Korea, in protest.
