▲ Yoko Inoue (2nd from R), a co-head of the Association to Etch the Calamity of the Under Sea Coal Mine Disaster into History, speaks during a press conference at a House of Councillors' building in Tokyo in this file photo taken Feb. 28, 2025. (Yonhap)
▲ This undated photo provided by South Korean divers Kim Kyung-soo and Kim Soo-eun shows a human skull discovered at the site of the Chosei coal mine in Japan's western Yamaguchi Prefecture, which flooded in 1942, killing 183 people, including 136 Koreans who had been forcibly mobilized. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)
▲ Interior Minister Yun Ho-jung speaks during an interview with Yonhap News Agency on Jan. 16, 2026, at his office in central Seoul. (Yonhap)

S Korea-Japan-wartime mine

S. Korea plans to award Japanese civic group for helping recover remains of Korean victims at wartime coal mine

SEOUL, Jan. 19 (Yonhap) -- South Korea seeks to award a Japanese civic group for its role in the recovery of victims' remains at the site of a 1942 Japanese coal mine disaster where more than 100 Korean forced laborers died, Interior Minister Yun Ho-jung has said.

If realized, it would mark the first time for the South Korean government to bestow a state decoration to a Japanese civic organization since Korea's liberation from Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule.

Yun said he would push to honor the Association to Etch the Calamity of the Under Sea Coal Mine Disaster into History in an interview with Yonhap News Agency on Friday, noting a recent bilateral agreement to conduct DNA analysis to identify the remains recovered at the Chosei Mine last year.

"The Japanese government had previously not acknowledged that there were victims at the Chosei coal mine site," Yun said. "That's why it was South Korean divers who worked with the Japanese civic group that found the remains.

"There will be a government award for the Japanese civic group and our divers who participated in the remains recovery."

In 1942, a devastating flood at the Chosei coal mine in Japan's western Yamaguchi Prefecture killed 183 workers, including 136 Koreans who had been forcibly mobilized.

While the accident had long been forgotten, the Japanese civic group has worked to investigate the disaster and recover the victims' remains since its formation in 1991.

Through crowd funding, the organization conducted underwater recovery efforts and found four human bone fragments, including a skull, last August, renewing interest in the disaster. South Korean divers Kim Kyung-soo and Kim Soo-eun took part in the remains' recovery.

Last week, the two countries agreed to conduct the DNA analysis during President Lee Jae Myung's summit talks with Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, raising hopes the remains could be returned to the victims' families.

The interior ministry has already decided to give a minister's commendation to the Japanese group and the divers. It plans to deliver the commendation to the Japanese organization next month in Japan.

Meanwhile, Yun said he would be willing to push for state awards for others, including a Japanese journalist who unearthed a list of passengers who boarded a Japanese ship that sank in 1945 while repatriating Koreans, and killed hundreds.

(END)

[ⓒ K-VIBE. 무단전재-재배포 금지]