A memorial event honoring the Korean victims of forced labor at Japan’s Sado mines during World War II is unlikely to take place in July or August as Japan had promised. 

A foreign ministry official in Seoul said Monday that last year’s event was inevitably delayed because the mines were inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage list in late July, and that this year, holding the ceremony in July or August appears to have become difficult amid ongoing negotiations.

Japan’s pledge to hold the memorial ceremony was one of the preconditions that South Korea insisted on in exchange for its consent to the inscription of the Sado mines as a UNESCO World Heritage site. 

The official said that at the time of the inscription, Japan conveyed its intention to hold the memorial ceremony in July or August. 

Last year’s inaugural memorial event ended in a dispute between the two countries in November, with South Korea skipping the memorial and holding its own ceremony.