NKorean paper demands from Japan compensations for colonial rule

PYONGYANG, February 21 (Itar-Tass) - North Korea's leading Rodong
Sinmun newspaper on Monday demanded from Japan to recognize its
responsibility for "atrocious crimes of the past" and pay compensations.
The newspaper sees it as Japan's "moral and legal obligation".
The newspaper warned that the people and the army of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, for whom Japan remains "a sworn enemy, confirm their commitments to reckon with it".
According to the newspaper, the Japanese authorities should as soon as possible "apologise for crimes committed during the period of colonial rule in Korea in 1910-1945 and pay a compensation".
However, the article notes that instead of such a reasonable step,
Japanese reactionary forces on the contrary "have embarked on the path of the revival of militarism and preparations for a foreign aggression".
From 1910 to 1945 the Japanese authorities forcibly took out of the country for forced labour over 8.4 million Koreans. About a million of them died. In 1930-1940, Japanese soldiers used many Korean women for sex.
According to Korean historians, 100 years ago Japan fabricated the
so-called "annexation treaty" and other documents which meant in practice the establishment of Japanese protectorate, and resulted in the occupation of the whole Korean peninsula five years later.
At the present time, North Korean historians stressed that there is no stamp of the Korean king and his signature on the original of the treaty.
This testifies to the fact that it was fabricated and has no legal force.
In 1965 Japan normalized relations with South Korea. There are no
diplomatic relations between Pyongyang and Tokyo.