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Norks demand Japan PM's official apology for colonization
SEOUL, Oct. 25 (Yonhap) -- North Korea has urged Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama to officially apologize and compensate for Japan's past colonization of the Korean Peninsula, saying his earlier remarks in support of a 1995 apology are not sufficient. The weekly Tongil Sinbo, published Saturday, referred to Hatoyama's recent statement that he would abide by the so-called Murayama pledge. In the pledge, then Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama acknowledged that Japan inflicted tremendous damage and suffering throughout Asia and other countries during its colonial rule and aggression in the first half of the 20th century.

"What the Korean people and all humankind want is not the repetition of noncommittal words of regret but a thorough apology and compensation for the bloody past," the Tongil Sinbo said.
There it is: the demand for payment. All else is mere embroidery.
Japan occupied the Korean Peninsula from 1910 until 1945, when Japan surrendered to the western allied forces in World War II. The article cited the millions of Korean men and women forced by Japan to fight in the war, do hard labor or serve as sex slaves, as well as the massacres of civilians during the colonial era.

"Crime cannot evade punishment. If it tries to evade its blood-soaked criminal past with a few words of regret, it is impossible for Japan to expect a bright future," the article said.

North Korea and Japan have not established diplomatic relations since Korea's liberation from Japan. South Korean established ties with its island neighbor in 1965, a contentious move at the time. Attempts to build Pyongyang-Tokyo relations have ended in failure due to a dispute over North Korea's abductions of Japanese citizens in the late 1970s and early 80s and the ongoing North Korean nuclear standoff.
Posted by: Steve White 2009-10-26
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=281801