Akiko Ikuina, parliamentary vice minister at Japan's Foreign Ministry, will attend the Sado gold mine memorial ceremony on Sunday to commemorate wartime forced labor victims there, Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced Friday.

From Saturday to Sunday, Ikuina will visit Sado, in Japan's Niigata prefecture, to "attend the memorial service for the Sado Island Gold Mine and also tour (the mine)," the Japanese government said in a notification. South Korean Ambassador to Japan Park Cheol-hee will also attend the inaugural ceremony.

Earlier on Wednesday, South Korea's Foreign Ministry announced that the memorial ceremony for forced labor victims will take place at the Aikawa Kaihatsu Sogo Center on Sado Island.

As South Korea's consent contributed to Sado Mine's inscription as a UNESCO World Heritage site in July, Seoul has demanded that Japan hold a memorial service for the forced labor victims.

Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul said in July immediately after UNESCO listing of Sado mines, during a foreign ministers' meeting in Vientiane, Laos, that he expected Japan to "continue to demonstrate its commitment faithfully" to its follow-up measures including the annual memorial event for the workers.

Before July's inscription, there had been a longstanding historical dispute surrounding the gold mine because at least 1,500 workers were estimated to be from the Korean Peninsula, which was then under Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule.

In another conciliatory measure, the Aikawa History Museum, located some 2 kilometers away from the Sado Island Gold Mine, began exhibiting the harsh working conditions of workers from the Korean Peninsula in July.