Asia-Pacific

DPRK urges all Koreans to force Japan to apologize

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-08-23 18:47

PYONGYANG - The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Monday urged all Koreans to force Japan to make a sincere apology and reparations for their military occupation and colonial rule of the Korea Peninsula, the KCNA news agency reported.

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The Korean Social Democratic Party of the DPRK and the Democratic Labor Party of South Korea issued a joint appeal, urging all the Koreans to?"unite as one" under the "patriotic banner of struggle against Japan," said the KCNA.

The two peoples should "wage dynamic solidarity actions to force Japan to pay for the crimes committed against the Koreans for a centenary this year," said the appeal.

Japan has dodged sincere apology and reparation for its past crimes while a centenary has passed since the fabrication of the "Korea-Japan Annexation Treaty," it said.

The recent statement made by Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan was "nothing but half 'apology' as it excluded the DPRK, an empty talk as it did not mention any reparation," the appeal said, it was "another mockery of the Korean nation and remarks deceiving it."

On August 15, Kan apologized to Asian countries for the Japanese aggression during World War II at a ceremony to mark the 65th anniversary of Japan's unconditional surrender.

However, the DPRK Foreign Ministry criticized Japan for only apologizing to South Korea for its colonial rule but expressing no regret to the DPRK.

The Korea-Japan Annexation Treaty signed by the Japanese administration of Ito Hirobumi put the Korea Peninsula under its colonial rule until 1945, when Japan surrendered to the Allies in World War II.

The treaty, signed on August 22, 1910, and cooked up by the Japanese imperialists, was a "completely illegal and invalid document," the KCNA said.