Japan’s push for UNESCO to list divisive gold mine delayed

By MARI YAMAGUCHI
Associated Press

TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s push to obtain UNESCO World Heritage recognition for a former gold mine key to the nation’s industrialization will be delayed. The Sado Island mine in northern Japan operated for nearly 400 years and was once the world’s largest gold producer before closing in 1989. But the efforts to obtain a UNESCO listing have added to diplomatic frictions with South Korea. Seoul says Koreans brought to Japan during its 1910-1945 colonization of the Korean Peninsula were put to forced labor at the mine. Japan’s culture minister said Thursday that UNESCO considered its application for recognition to be insufficient but he didn’t say why. He said it would be resubmitted.