South Korea has paid tribute to wartime Korean forced laborers at Japan’s Sado Island Gold Mines in a memorial ceremony

The event came after the Sado Island Gold Mines were designated a UNESCO World Heritage site earlier this year.

Japan has held a memorial ceremony near the Sado Island Gold Mines despite a last-minute boycott of the event by South Korea that highlighted tensions between the neighbors over the brutal wartime use

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.

An event to commemorate Japanese and Korean laborers who worked at the gold and silver mine complex on Japan's Sado Island during W

A Japanese mayor said it is "extremely regrettable" that South Korea pulled out of a memorial ceremony Sunday to honor wartime forced labor victims, local media reported.

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.

Efforts by South Korea and Japan to hold a joint memorial service near Japa’s Sado Island Gold Mines, where Koreans were forced to work during Japan’s colonial rule, fell apart on Nov. 24 due to disagreements between both governments.