An advocacy group for the victims of Japan’s wartime forced labor issue has strongly criticized South Korean Ambassador to Japan Yun Duk-min for his remarks against the liquidation of assets held by Japanese firms implicated in forced labor conscription. 

The group said in a statement on Tuesday that it is deplorable to hear a South Korean ambassador utter the words that may come from a Japanese ambassador, asking which country Yun represents, Korea or Japan.  

The criticism came a day after Yun said in his first press conference since taking office that astronomical losses could be generated for South Korean businesses in the long-term due to the liquidation. 

The Seoul-based civic group said the diplomat’s wording is tantamount to a proposal to give up on the victims’ legal right for fear of reprisals by Japan. 

They argued that Tokyo has ignored the South Korean top court’s rulings for more than four years and even used them as a convenient excuse to pose a crisis to South Korean industries in the form of export curbs. 

The ambassador, instead of rebuking the-pot-calling-the-kettle-black attitudes by Japan, is calling on South Korea to lower its tail, they claimed.