DPRK A-bomb victims urge Japan to apologize, compensate

Some A-bomb victims in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) urged Japan to apologize and compensate Monday, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.

The victims of the atomic bombings in the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki criticized Japan for refusing to admit its responsibility for their misfortune and failure to make apology and compensation, KCNA reported.

Pyon Kap Ok, 73, told KCNA that though she survived from the A-bomb attack in Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, she was hospitalized for paraplegia for 14 months after returning to the DPRK. Now 65 years has passed, she is still gnawed by the pain from her swollen and festered legs.

Another victim U Chun Mi, 65, said she suffered the injury from the bombing when she was four months old. And she has been struggling since with such diseases as asthma, laryngitis, gastroptosis, colitis and poor function of liver as she grew up. When she returned to the DPRK in 1961, she cannot work because of her diseases.

Those victims were forcibly brought to Hiroshima, Nagasaki and other places in Japan as slave labors during the 1910-1945 Japanese colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula. They have been urging the Japanese government for decades to apologize and take care of their treatment.

Source: Xinhua