President Park Geun-hye on Wednesday condemned Japan's bid to list its wartime industrial facilities as world heritage sites, saying the move creates conflict between it and the nations that suffered under Japanese colonial rule.
  

Park made the remark in a meeting with UNESCO chief Irina Bokova as Japan was campaigning to win UNESCO world heritage status for several industrial facilities where Koreans were taken to toil away as slaves during World War II.
  

"Japan ignoring the history of forced laborers and trying to registering its industrial facilities as world heritage sites goes against UNESCO's spirit and creates unnecessary feuds between nations," Park said. "UNESCO world heritage sites should play a role to promote conversation, reconciliation and friendship between countries."
  

Bokova, who was in the nation for an education forum, promised to convey her message to the UNESCO heritage panels, encouraging Seoul and Tokyo to communicate with each other to resolve the issue, according to Park's office.
  

It is the first time that Park directly mentioned Japan's UNESCO heritage application, whose result will be announced during a World Heritage Committee Session in Germany, scheduled from June 28 to July 8.
  

UNESCO has become the stage for a diplomatic fight between Seoul and Tokyo over their shared history. Japan colonized Korea from 1910-45 and coerced hundreds of thousands of Koreans into slave labor during that time.
  

It is one of a number of wartime atrocities committed by Japan including the sexual enslavement of Korean and other Asian women. (Yonhap)