Seoul, Tokyo to start DNA testing on wartime remains found in Japanese coal mine

Korea and Japan will begin DNA testing on human remains recovered from a submerged wartime coal mine in southwestern Japan, a critical step toward identifying Korean laborers forced into dangerous underwater shafts during World War II. The Korean government said Monday that forensic experts will analyze remains excavated in August 2025 and February 2026 from the Chosei coal mine in Ube, Yamaguchi prefecture. The testing framework follows an agreement struck by the two nations during a bilateral summit on Jan. 13, which was subsequently formalized through working-level diplomatic negotiations. The Chosei mine is the site of a notorious 1942 disaster, when an underwater tunnel collapsed beneath the seabed, drowning more than 180 people. Historical records indicate that more than 130 of the victims were Korean forced laborers brought to the site during Japan’s colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula. For decades, the site remained largely untouched, submerged beneath the ocean, serving as a painful emblem of unresolved wartime grievances. Officials from Seoul’s Ministry of Foreign Affair