Several members of the Democratic Party of Korea took to the streets on March 17 to protest the government's diplomacy with Japan, while President Yoon Suk-yeol is on a two-day official visit to Tokyo. 

Yoon's visit follows his step to resolve the dispute over wartime laborers. On March 6, the South Korean government announced that victims who were forced into hard labor by Imperial Japan during World War II would be compensated through a private foundation, rather than directly by the Japanese companies responsible.

Several Democratic Party members in the National Assembly gathered in front of the bronze statue of Yi Sun-sin, a Korean military general famed for his victories against the Japanese navy in the 16th century, to voice their anger against the government.