Laborer Statue near Japanese Mission in S. Korea Removed

June 1, 2018

Busan, South Korea- A statue symbolizing Korean victims of forced labor under Japan's colonial rule was removed from a sidewalk near the Japanese consulate-general in Busan, South Korea, Thursday.

While being protected by some 1,500 police officers, officials from the Dong district office, which manages the road, loaded the statue onto a truck using a forklift.

The statue, wrapped in a white cloth, was then transported to a museum in the city commemorating such laborers.

The statue had been left on the pavement since a South Korean labor group tried and failed to set it up in front of the consulate-general on May 1.

A citizens group staged a rally near the consulate-general to protest the removal. Some people clashed with the police when they held onto the statue to prevent its removal. The group also assembled in front of the museum for a sit-in protest.

The statue will be kept at the museum. It will be returned if the group, which holds the statue's ownership, completes necessary procedures, district officials said.

The removal came after talks between officials from the South Korean Foreign Ministry and Dong district and the citizens group fell apart earlier on Thursday.

The officials asked for the statue to be put in the museum for reasons such as protecting foreign diplomatic missions. But the citizens group insisted on placing it in front of the consulate-general.

The Japanese government welcomed the removal.

The South Korean government's move can be highly appreciated, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said at a press conference in Tokyo.

"We'll continue to watch closely to see that the statue is not installed," Suga said. Jiji Press