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Association of Korean Victims of Forcible Drafting and Their Bereaved Families

KCNA

    Pyongyang, November 6 (KCNA) -- The Association of Korean Victims of Forcible Drafting and Their Bereaved Families was formed. Its purpose and mission are to intensify the struggle to force the Japanese government to apologize and compensate for Japan's past crimes in order to help all those who were forcibly drafted by the Japanese imperialists in the past and their bereaved families give vent to their pent-up wrath and restore their honor and dignity.
    At its inaugural meeting held in Pyongyang today the reporter and speakers said that the Japanese imperialists' forcible drafting of Koreans was aimed to rake in their own profits and requisition human resources for the escalation of their war of aggression and eradicate Koreans in a bid to exterminate the Korean nation.
    Bitterly accusing Japan of evading the redemption of its past crimes and stepping up militarization, they reiterated their pledge to struggle until explicit words of apology and full compensation are wrested from the Japanese government.
    Documents were adopted at the meeting.
    A statement of Korean victims of forcible drafting and their bereaved families strongly demanded the Japanese government thoroughly probe the truth of forcible drafting of Koreans and disclose its facts and on that basis punish criminals and make full state apology and compensation which would make all the victims understandable.
    A letter addressed to the Japanese government urged it to investigate and disclose on a case-to-case basis all serious violations of human rights committed in the period of Japan's occupation of Korea and sternly punish those responsible by law as soon as their truth is probed.
    The government should make sincere apology to the victims and their bereaved families for having committed crimes against the Koreans, make compensation which would make them understandable and probe and confirm the identity of the Koreans killed and their remains and notify them to the association, the letter contended.
    A letter sent to Diego Garcia Sayan, chairman of the working group for those forced to be missing of the UN commission on Human Rights, referred to the fact that the list of 420,000 Korean victims of forcible drafting was recently disclosed by the Japanese government and requested the group to help receive information on missing persons from the government.
    The letter expressed the expectation that the group would exert every possible effort by performing its function to help alleviate the sufferings of victims of forcible drafting and their families and relatives at an early date.
    A statute of the association was published and its leading members were appointed.
    Present there were Hong Son Ok, chairperson of the DPRK Measure Committee for Demanding Compensation to Comfort Women for the Japanese Army and the Victims of Forcible Drafting, officials concerned, victims of forcible drafting and their bereaved families and Pyongyang citizens.