Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

KCNA Blasts Japanese PM's Visit to "Yasukuni Shrine"

Korean Central News Agency of DPRK via Korea News Service (KNS)

    Pyongyang August 16 (KCNA) -- Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi Tuesday visited the "Yasukuni Shrine" despite strong protest at home and abroad. His sixth visit to the shrine after his assumption of the office is a grave insult and challenge to the peoples of Asian countries that fell victim to Japan's invasion as it meant to justify the history of the aggression and crimes committed by Japan against those countries in the past and honor the departed souls of the militarists. The "Yasukuni Shrine" has served as a hotbed of aggressive nature and ultra-nationalism of Japan and a symbol of militarism.
    Preserved there are mortuary tablets of class-A war criminals ill-famed for killing millions of innocent civilians after invading Asian countries in the past. That is why the peoples of different countries in Asia who suffered unspeakable misfortune and pain due to the Japanese imperialists in the past strongly oppose and denounce the Japanese politicians' visits to the shrine, branding them as reckless behaviors aimed at the revival of militarism and the repetition of the history of invasion.
    Nevertheless, Koizumi openly visited the "shrine" on the anniversary of its defeat. This is a blatant challenge to the just voices of the peoples of Asia and the rest of the world and a revelation of the Japanese ruling quarters' "political will" to restart overseas aggression by stepping up the militarization of the country and the moves to push society to the Right.
    As a matter of fact, Japan has been busy whitewashing its crime-woven past and making arrangements for realizing its wild ambition for reinvasion, thus gravely threatening the regional peace and security over the last 61 years since its defeat. Legislations were adopted to legalize the participation of the Japan Self-Defense Forces (SDF) in overseas war of aggression and its arms buildup has been accelerated and the SDF's "overseas advance" stepped in real earnest in Japan. The Japanese authorities have been so crafty as to cover the aggressive nature of these actions. The visit paid by the prime minister to the "shrine" this time despite the unanimous denunciation by the peoples in the region and the rest of the world saliently reveals their sinister intention.
    His visit to the "shrine" diametrically runs counter to the DPRK-Japan Pyongyang Declaration.
    He continued visiting the "shrine" which honors the departed souls of the assailants even after he signed the declaration in which he expressed repentance and apology for the misfortune and sufferings that Japan imposed upon the Korean people in the past and thus abandoned his commitment, rubbing salt into the wounds of the Korean people and making the DPRK-Japan relations go from bad to worse.
    The reality goes to clearly prove that Japan is a cancer-like entity in preserving regional peace as it is seized by such revanchism and fever to revive militarism that it is deaf to the voices of the people in the region condemning Japan and discarding even its international commitment.
    It is the height of folly for Japan to talk about a "political role commensurate with its economic potential."
    Japan can never shake off its ill-fame of being recorded in the UN Charter as an "enemy state", much less thinking of a permanent seat on the UNSC, as it is keen on the preparations for overseas expansion, distorting history and encouraging visits to the "shrine," far from redressing the crimes it committed against Koreans and other Asians. The international community should pay a serious attention to the revanchist design pursued by Japan under the signboard of "service" and "contribution" and the UN would be well advised to put such issue as the revival of Japan's militarism on top of its agenda.
    If Japan goes in for militarism again, oblivious of the lesson taught by its history in which it went to ruin due to its past aggression and overseas expansion, it will not be able to escape self-destruction.