N. Korean newspaper calls on Japan to atone for its wartime crimes

North Korea's official newspaper on Thursday called on Japan to abstain from insulting the victims of Japanese wartime sexual slavery and sincerely atone for its past wrongdoing.

In a commentary written by an unidentified person, the Rodong Sinmun, the official newspaper of the North's ruling party, lambasted what it described as Japan's shamelessness, citing a recent episode in which a Japanese person appeared to kick a statue symbolizing its wartime sexual slavery victims in Taiwan.

(Yonhap)

Last month, a right-wing Japanese individual was caught on camera apparently kicking a statue representing the women Japan forced into sexual slavery during World War II. The statue is the first of its kind installed in Taiwan for those victims euphemistically called comfort women.

The Rodong Sinmun said that such insulting behavior reflected Japan's outright challenge to the conscience of humankind and constituted veiled aspiration to commit such crimes again.

"It is an international demand that Japan liquidate its own past history and it would be mistaken if it thinks that it can go against this demand," the newspaper said. "It is a legal obligation and moral responsibility to apologize and compensate for a crime committed."

It also called on Japan to deeply reflect on why such statues of girls had been established in the first place and realize that it would only lay bare its shamelessness and immorality if it continued to deny its past crimes and insult victims. (Yonhap)