South Korea has urged Japan to look into unresolved issues... before pushing ahead with the registration of what Tokyo sees as historically important sites on the UNESCO World Heritage list.
After conducting independent research,... a committee under Korea's Prime Minister's Office said Wednesday that more than 15-hundred Koreans were coerced to work by five Japanese companies during Japan's colonial rule of Korea.
Japan is pressing for Hashima - once a coal-mining hub - and 22 other landmarks of Japan's industrialization to be certified by UNESCO.
The use of slave labor was even worse during World War II... with an estimated 60-thousand Koreans forced to work in unbearable conditions.
The committee also urged Tokyo to return to Korea the remains of forced laborers who died at those sites.