SADO, Japan (AP) — Japanese officials have held a memorial ceremony near the Sado Island Gold Mines, listed in July as a UNESCO World Heritage site after Japan moved past years of historical disputes with South Korea and reluctantly acknowledged the mines' dark history. However, it has not offered an apology.

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.

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 ...

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.

A memorial service for Korean laborers forcibly mobilized to the Sado mines, which Japan had promised to hold annually following the site’s inscription as a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage last summer,

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.

South Korea has paid tribute to wartime Korean forced laborers at Japan's Sado gold mines in a memorial ceremony.