ID :
77690
Mon, 08/31/2009 - 13:28
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/77690
The shortlink copeid
(LEAD) Amid power shift in Japan, N. Korea renews call for apology over sex slaves
(ATTN: CORRECTS party name in 2nd para)
By Kim Hyun
SEOUL, Aug. 31 (Yonhap) -- North Korea demanded Monday that Japan "break with its
crooked past" and apologize for forcing hundreds of thousands of women into
sexual slavery during World War II, a call apparently aimed at Tokyo's new
government.
A day after center-left opposition Democratic Party of Japan secured a landslide
win that ended half a century of domination by a single, conservative party in
Japan, the Rodong Sinmun, North Korea's main newspaper, carried a commentary
criticizing the country's past militarism. The article urged Tokyo emulate
Germany, which apologized and compensated for crimes committed under Nazi rule
during World War II.
"Japan should follow in the footsteps of countries that have demonstrated
integrity in clearing up the past," said the paper, published by the Workers'
Party. "For Japan to gain international trust, it must squarely break with its
crooked past."
Historians say more than 200,000 young women, mostly from Korea and other
neighboring Asian nations, were forced by the Japanese military to serve at
frontline brothels during World War II. Tokyo has acknowledged the existence of
these women, euphemistically called "comfort women," but denies any government
involvement, saying the victims were recruited and dispatched by groups acting
independently.
Over the past decades, both North and South Korea, along with the international
community, have repeatedly called for Japan to issue an apology. Japan had
colonized Korea from 1910 to 1945.
The North Korean paper noted recent forums in the United States in which people
called on Washington to submit a resolution to the United Nations to denounce the
sex slavery. A group of Chinese lawyers also sent a letter to about 20 Japanese
enterprises demanding compensations for Chinese citizens mobilized for forced
labor during the war, the paper said.
"Many wars have been recorded in human history," it said, "but it is only Japan
that, under the directive of the government and the military, has committed
inhuman crimes on such a massive scale, ordering arrests, abductions and the
kidnapping of women to be taken to the battlefield as sex slaves."
Japan has a "historic, legal and moral responsibility to frankly acknowledge and
compensate" for its past wrongdoing, the paper added.
In Seoul, scores of the nearly 120 surviving South Korean "comfort women"
continue to stage protests outside the Japanese embassy. They have been holding
them every Wednesday since 1992.
The legislatures of the United States, the European Union, the Netherlands and
Canada have all passed non-binding resolutions in recent years demanding that
Japan apologize to these women.
hkim@yna.co.kr
(END)
By Kim Hyun
SEOUL, Aug. 31 (Yonhap) -- North Korea demanded Monday that Japan "break with its
crooked past" and apologize for forcing hundreds of thousands of women into
sexual slavery during World War II, a call apparently aimed at Tokyo's new
government.
A day after center-left opposition Democratic Party of Japan secured a landslide
win that ended half a century of domination by a single, conservative party in
Japan, the Rodong Sinmun, North Korea's main newspaper, carried a commentary
criticizing the country's past militarism. The article urged Tokyo emulate
Germany, which apologized and compensated for crimes committed under Nazi rule
during World War II.
"Japan should follow in the footsteps of countries that have demonstrated
integrity in clearing up the past," said the paper, published by the Workers'
Party. "For Japan to gain international trust, it must squarely break with its
crooked past."
Historians say more than 200,000 young women, mostly from Korea and other
neighboring Asian nations, were forced by the Japanese military to serve at
frontline brothels during World War II. Tokyo has acknowledged the existence of
these women, euphemistically called "comfort women," but denies any government
involvement, saying the victims were recruited and dispatched by groups acting
independently.
Over the past decades, both North and South Korea, along with the international
community, have repeatedly called for Japan to issue an apology. Japan had
colonized Korea from 1910 to 1945.
The North Korean paper noted recent forums in the United States in which people
called on Washington to submit a resolution to the United Nations to denounce the
sex slavery. A group of Chinese lawyers also sent a letter to about 20 Japanese
enterprises demanding compensations for Chinese citizens mobilized for forced
labor during the war, the paper said.
"Many wars have been recorded in human history," it said, "but it is only Japan
that, under the directive of the government and the military, has committed
inhuman crimes on such a massive scale, ordering arrests, abductions and the
kidnapping of women to be taken to the battlefield as sex slaves."
Japan has a "historic, legal and moral responsibility to frankly acknowledge and
compensate" for its past wrongdoing, the paper added.
In Seoul, scores of the nearly 120 surviving South Korean "comfort women"
continue to stage protests outside the Japanese embassy. They have been holding
them every Wednesday since 1992.
The legislatures of the United States, the European Union, the Netherlands and
Canada have all passed non-binding resolutions in recent years demanding that
Japan apologize to these women.
hkim@yna.co.kr
(END)
