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.

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 says it will not attend a ceremony in Japan to commemorate victims of forced labor in the Sado Island Gold Mines. This comes as the two nations seek to draw together amid regional threats.

South Korea said Saturday it will not attend a memorial ceremony in Japan honoring forced labor victims, including Koreans, from an old Japanese mine complex, amid controversy over Tokyo's decision to send a senior official with hard-line views on history to the event.