Russia, South Korea consult on destiny of Koreans brought by Japanese to Sakhalin in 1940s
YUZHNO-SAKHALINSK. May 23 (Interfax) - Two-day consultations of Russia and South Korea began in Russia's Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk on Thursday.
"This is the second round of the Russian-Korean consultations to determine the destinies of Koreans forcedly resettled to Sakhalin by Japanese until August 1945. The consultations are held under the supervision of the foreign ministries of both countries," Deputy Director of the Russian Foreign Ministry's First Asia Department, Alexander Matsegora, told Interfax.
"The main task we have is to resolve humanitarian issues related to assisting the Korean citizens looking for their relatives, who were forcedly resettled by Japanese to Sakhalin Island in early 1940s and who died on the island in 1960s-1980s," Matsegora said.
The diplomat said that South Korea asked to not only find burial sites of Koreans on Sakhalin but to allow reburying them in South Korea. "These issues are to be resolved in accordance with the Russian law and of course in accordance with the opinion of relatives currently living on Sakhalin. We are to resolve an entire range of difficult issues," he said.
"These are not conclusive consultations, just a stage. They will continue further and we will reports results to our chiefs, who will decide," Matsegora said.
"The information on the number of resettled Koreans varies a lot. We think that Japanese resettled a total of up to 150,000 Koreans to Sakhalin, however some of them were later brought to Japan. According to various information, between 40,000 and 60,000 Koreans lived on Sakhalin when the Soviet army came to Sakhalin. We currently have to focus on the few documents our archives have today," the diplomat said.
