South Korean opposition lawmaker: ”Failure to adopt Gunkanjima as UNESCO agenda item is due to 'lack of strategy and insufficient preparation'”

On the 8th, Na Kyung-won, a lawmaker from the South Korean opposition party People Power Party, said, "The failure to adopt an agenda item on Gunkanjima (Hashima Island in Nagasaki Prefecture) at UNESCO is a diplomatic strategy to persuade the international community.
"This is a bitter result caused by the absence and lack of preparation," he said, calling for the Korean government to take an active stance.
"When the museum was registered, it promised the international community that it would convey the full history, including the forced labor of Koreans," he said. "However, after the registration, the truth about forced labor was not fully conveyed in the museum.
"The situation was completely hidden, and the memorial service for the victims was merely a formality," he said. "Even when we were promoting the Sado Gold Mine World Heritage Site last year, our government was making strategic decisions to normalize relations.
"I voted in favor of the plan out of curiosity, but in reality it was just an exhibition that didn't even include the word 'coercion,' and a one-sided memorial service that excluded Korean family members," he wrote.
He continued, "Despite this precedent, the international community has still not been diplomatically prepared to clearly hold Japan accountable.
Na also lamented, "The UNESCO vote was a diplomatic battle on the international stage regarding the Korea-Japan historical issue. However, the government was unable to secure allies and was forced to engage in a diplomatic battle.
"What is needed now is not the old-fashioned slogan 'pro-Japan/anti-Japan,' but a detailed diplomatic strategy to correct Japan's distortion of history on the international stage," he said.
"We must confront Japan's distortion of history with a well-thought-out diplomatic strategy based on international norms and historical facts, not emotional incitement," he said.