Japan urged to put its commitments into practice
KCNA
Pyongyang, April 19 (KCNA) -- A DPRK delegate to the 59th meeting of the UN commission on human rights referring to the issue of women's rights and violence against them on April 10 urged Japan to take measures to put into practice the apology for its past crimes and commitments it made in the DPRK-Japan Pyongyang Declaration.
Japan committed crimes related to "comfort women" for the imperial Japanese army against 200,000 Korean women and many other Asian and European women by exercising administrative and military power pursuant to its wartime state policy. These were most hideous crimes against humanity in history.
He continued:
A special rapporteur at the meeting stressed the need for the Japanese government to admit its legal responsibility for the crimes, recognizing that the organization and operation of "comfort women" system was a violation of international legal duty. But Japan adamantly refused to admit its legal responsibility for them, insisting on its far-fetched assertion that "rape committed during a war is neither a war crime nor a crime against humanity."
Though the special rapporteur demanded Japan deal with the historical facts about the "comfort women" for the imperial Japanese army in its textbooks to raise the social awareness of the issue, it deleted serious crimes including the system of "comfort women" for the imperial Japanese army from history textbooks and approved at the examination those books which distorted and justified its crime-woven past. Worse still, high-ranking officials and politicians of Japan keep visiting the "Yasukuni Shrine" despite international community's strong protest and denunciation.
All these facts are a clear indication of the Japanese authorities' stand and attitude not to admit its past atrocities as crimes. They also clearly prove that Japan has no willingness to sincerely put into practice the admonition given by the rapporteur reflecting the just demands of victims.
The assailants and their offspring may easily forget their past crimes but victims and their descendants will never forget the damage and pain inflicted upon them, he noted, adding that it is an unavoidable urgent legal responsibility of Japan to settle its past crimes.
