DPRK Leader Wants to Normalize Ties with Japan: Report

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Sunday, September 15, 2002

DPRK Leader Wants to Normalize Ties with Japan: Report

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Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) leader Kim Jong Il said in a written interview Saturday that he wants to normalize diplomatic ties with Japan and is ready to visit Japan, Japan's Kyodo News reported.

In the written response in Korean to the questions submitted by Kyodo News President Ichiro Saita, Kim said he is willing to visit Japan once bilateral relations are normalized, but he also reiterated that Japan must apologize and compensate for its 1910-1945 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.

"It is the historic mission for the two countries' politicians of today to normalize relations between the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and Japan," Kim reportedly said in the written interview.

"There would be no reason to prevent me from visiting Japan if relations between the two countries are normalized and develop in a favorable manner," he said.

Kim said he welcomes the upcoming visit by Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, adding that the meeting is expected to end with good results.

Koizumi is scheduled to make a one-day visit to Pyongyang on Sept. 17, the first ever by a Japanese prime minister.

Kim also demanded that Japan's top leader make an apology in a legally binding document for the suffering Japan had caused during its colonial rule.

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