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.

SEOUL: The South Korean government plans to hold a separate on-site memorial ceremony for Koreans forced to work at the gold mines on Sado island during Japan's colonial rule, following a last-minute decision to boycott Japan’s memorial event on Sunday (Nov 24).

South Korea says it will not attend a ceremony in Japan to commemorate victims of forced labor in the Sado Island Gold Mines. This comes as the two nations seek to draw together amid regional threats.

South Korea’s government says it has decided not to attend a memorial service near Japan’s Sado Island Gold Mines due to unspecified disagreements with Japan over the event, which stirred longstanding tensions over the abuse of Korean forced laborers at the site before the end of World War II.

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Japan is holding a memorial ceremony on Sunday near the Sado Island Gold Mines, which were listed this summer as a UNESCO World Heritage site after the country settled years of historical disputes with South Korea and reluctantly acknowledged the mines' dark history.