SADO, Japan (AP) — 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 has paid tribute to wartime Korean forced laborers at Japan’s Sado gold mines in a memorial ceremony. The event on Monday came a day after Seoul boycotted a

SADO, Japan (AP) — South Korea paid tribute to wartime Korean forced laborers at Japan’s Sado Island Gold Mines in a memorial ceremony on Monday, a day after boycotting a similar event organized by Japan, as tensions over historical atrocities continue to impact relations between the two sides.

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.

Efforts by South Korea and Japan to hold a joint memorial service near Japa’s Sado Island Gold Mines, where Koreans were forced to work during Japan’s colonial rule, fell apart on Nov. 24 due to disagreements between both governments.