South Korea has a plan to end its forced-labour feud with Japan

Yang Geum-deok, a child of 1940s Korea, dreamed of being a teacher. When her head teacher suggested she should study in Japan, the country’s colonial ruler, she enthusiastically agreed. Aged only 13, she forged the necessary documents and left her home in South Jeolla province. She was promptly dispatched not to the promised school in Japan, but to an aeroplane factory run by Mitsubishi, a Japanese conglomerate. “I was worked almost to death and never paid,” she recalls. Her last hope, she says, is that “the offenders will offer a sincere apology before I die”.She may at least be offered some hard cash. On March 6th the government of Yoon Suk-yeol, South Korea’s president, announced a new compensation fund for victims of Japanese wartime forced labour or their surviving relatives. The details—including, crucially, whether Mitsubishi or any Japanese firm will pay into it—are unclear. Yet Mr Yoon hopes this will end a dispute that has for decades poisoned the two countries’ relations, even as American pressure and worries about China and North Korea draw them closer. Joe Biden, America’s president, hailed the announcement as “a groundbreaking new chapter of co-operation and partnership”.