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

SADO, Japan (AP) — Japanese officials on Sunday paid tribute to workers at the country's Sado Island Gold Mines but offered no apology over Japan’s brutal wartime use of Korean forced laborers, highlighting lingering tensions between the neighbors over the issue.

Two separate memorial services honoring those who worked in Sado Island’s gold mines during World War II were held here after the South Korean government’s last-minute withdrawal from the Japan-organized ceremony.

Korean families of wartime labor victims held an independent memorial on Sado Island, boycotting Japan's official ceremony due to perceived insincerity regarding historical acknowledgment.

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.