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Japan's push for UNESCO to list divisive gold mine delayed
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Shinsuke Suematsu, the Japanese Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, speaks to reporters at the prime minister's office in Tokyo, Thursday, July 28, 2022. Japan’s push to register a controversial former gold mine on Sado Island for a UNESCO World Heritage list is now being delayed because of insufficiency in the application, officials said. - photo by Kyodo News via AP
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 because its application was insufficient, officials said Thursday. The efforts to obtain a UNESCO listing for the Sado Island mine were protested by South Korea and have added to their diplomatic frictions over Japan's colonization of the Korean Peninsula and its actions in World War II. The mine in northern Japan operated for nearly 400 years and was once the world's largest gold producer before closing in 1989.