Japan will go ahead with a memorial ceremony on Sunday near the Sado Island Gold Mines, despite South Korea’s last-minute boycott of the event that highlighted tensions between the neighbors over the issue of Korean forced laborers at the site before and during World War II.

Japan held a memorial ceremony near the Sado Island Gold Mines, listed this summer as a UNESCO World Heritage site after the country moved past years of disputes with South

SADO: Japanese officials on Sunday paid tribute to workers at the Sado Island Gold Mines but refrained from offering an apology for Japan’s wartime use of Korean forced laborers, underscoring persistent tensions between the two countries over historical issues.