DPRK Condemns Japan's Tampering With HistoryThe Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Friday denounced Japanese authorities for the approval of new history textbooks that distort Japan's history of aggression in Asia."This is an intolerable insult and a blatant challenge to Korea and other Asian countries which underwent unspeakable disasters at the hands of the Japanese imperialists in the past, the international community and an unbiased public opinion," the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said in a commentary. It warned that Japan will have to pay a very high price for such "anachronistic acts." It pointed out that Japan's occupation of Korea in the early 20th century, its subsequent wars of aggression against other Asian countries, and the Japanese Imperialist Army's recruitment of hundreds of thousands of women as sex slaves, are all undeniable and indelible part of the world history of the 20th century. "It does not make any sense to write down the history of Japan in the first half of the 20th century without referring to those crimes," said the commentary. "However, the Japanese right-wing reactionary forces have persisted in their moves to teach young Japanese distorted history and the Japanese government has gone the length of officially joining in those moves. "The government connived at and backed the reactionary moves to rewrite history textbooks from the outset and finally justified and legalized them, thus committing one more unpardonable crime before humankind and history in the new century," said the commentary. Despite strong objections both at home and abroad, the Japanese government Tuesday gave the go-ahead to the new history textbooks compiled by a right-wing group, the Japanese Society for History Textbook Reform. |
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