KCNA urges Japan to redress past crimes
( 2003-11-10 16:37) (Agencies)
The Japanese government is
underlegal and moral obligations to thoroughly investigate the truth behind the
forcible drafting of Koreans, sincerely apologize to the victims and their
bereaved families and compensate them, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA)
said in a commentary released Monday.
The commentary said a list of 427,129 Korean victims of forcible drafting
during the Japanese imperialists' military occupation of the Korean Peninsular
was disclosed recently and that the list is just a tip of iceberg of the crimes
related to the forcible drafting.
During the Pacific war, Japan forcibly took away more than 8.4 million young
Koreans for slave labor and military service and forced 200,000 women into
sexual slavery for the Imperial Japanese army and killed many of them, it added.
"The forcible drafting of Koreans and forced labor imposed upon them were the
most hideous state-sponsored human rights abuses wantonly violating
international justice and law as they were a product of Japan's policy to
exterminate the Korean nation," the commentary said.
"However, the Japanese authorities have craftily worked to evade their state
responsibility for the monstrous crime the Japanese imperialists committed
against the Koreans in the past although more than half a century has passed
since the defeat of Japan," it said.
Japan is a war criminal state as it brought untold disasters tothe Koreans
and other Asian people and it is an unavoidable state obligation and political
commitment for Japan to make apology and compensation to the victims in view of
international law and from ethical and moral points of view, the commentary
stressed.
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