DPRK delegate speaks at UN human rights meeting
Pyongyang, April 23 (KCNA) -- The DPRK delegate made a speech at the 56th meeting of the U.N. commission on human rights on April 10.
The delegate stressed the need to internationally prevent the recurrence of such crimes against humanity as sexual abuses against women.
he continued:
Today the violation of women is prevalent in different armed conflict-torn regions of the world. This has been continued till now due to the Japanese army's sexual assaults on Korean and other Asian women during the second world war and Japan's failure to fully redress its past.
The Japanese authorities are seriously mistaken if they think they can play down Japan's extra-large crimes in the past and get them buried into oblivion in history with such artifices as "civilian fund" and "letter of apology."
He strongly demanded the Japanese authorities comprehensively investigate and make public the truth about human and material losses Japan inflicted upon the Korean people in the past, punish those responsible for them and make a state apology and compensation for its past at an early date.
Int'l organization representative supports inter-Korean summit talks
New Delhi, April 21 (KCNA) -- Debkumar Ganguli, secretary of the office of Asia-Pacific region of the world federation of trade unions, in his statement on April 12 said that the opportunity given to the South Korean chief executive to visit the DPRK clearly shows the magnanimity and charisma of the great Kim Jong Il, the lodestar of national reunification.
If the South Korean authorities have a sincere will to have a dialogue and achieve reunification, they should, first of all, make a policy switchover, he said, adding:
They must drop their anti-communist confrontation policy and pursue a policy of alliance and reconciliation with communists, abolish the anti-reunification fascist "security law" which obstructs national unity and reunification and set free the pro-reunification patriots behind bars.
Investigation into massacre of Vietnamese people urged in S. Korea
Pyongyang, April 23 (KCNA) -- The committee for investigation into truth behind massacre of innocent people in the Vietnam War which comprises over 10 civic organizations such as the international democratic solidarity, the lawyers association for democratic society and the catholic human rights committee called a press conference in Seoul on April 20 to denounce the "ROK" army for its massacre of Vietnamese people and demand an investigation into its truth, a South Korean paper said.
The committee said mass killings of the Vietnamese civilians committed by the "ROK" army have been disclosed one after another, as evidenced by the confession made by former "ROK" army company commander Kim Ki Thae of these atrocities during the Vietnam War.
He said that his company staged a search operation in a village of the central region of Vietnam in November 1966 and arrested and shot to death 29 defenceless young people and over 50 women and aged people.
The committee demanded the "government" make an formal apology to Vietnam for the massacre and called for forming a civilian and "governmental" joint investigation group including figures of civic organizations to fully probe the truth.
Ishihara's outbursts assailed
Pyongyang, April 23 (KCNA) -- Rodong Sinmun today in a signed commentary denounces Tokyo metropolitan governor Shintaro Ishihara for having made contemputuous remarks against the DPRK. Ishihara scornfully called the DPRK "Hokusen" in Japanese in his television appearance on April 16.
The remarks of the Tokyo metropolitan governor, a dastardly anti-communist element and fanatic militarist, are an intolerable crime as they tarnished the dignity and honor of the DPRK, the commentary says, and goes on:
This is a clear indication that national chauvinism of looking down upon and insulting the Korean nation still remains in the mind of the Japanese reactionaries.
The Japanese government, if it has a proper political view and willingness to improve relations with the DPRK, should never gloss over and connive at Ishihara's behaviour but call him to account. Doing so would help create an atmosphere for the DPRK-Japan talks and improve the bilateral relations.
If such grave anti-DPRK behaviour persists in Japan, it will put the DPRK and Japan in a serious situation, far from improving their relations.
The Korean people treasure the DPRK's dignity and authority more than anybody else.
Ishihara should make an official apology to the Korean people, being heavily responsible for his criminal deeds.
The Japanese authorities should take an immediate step to prevent such reckless deeds as his against the DPRK and Chongryon (General Association of Korean Residents in Japan).
U.S. bellicose forces' false propaganda assailed
Pyongyang, April 23 (KCNA) -- U.S. warmongers recently let Asian Wall Street Journal float the false rumour that the north and south of Korea "do not hope for reunification for internal reasons such as expenses for reunification and imbalance between both systems." In this regard Minju Joson today says in its signed commentary:
This is nothing but a false propaganda of those keen on the permanent division of Korea.
The national reunification of Korea has not yet been achieved not because of "expense" or "imbalance between systems" but because of interference and obstructions to the solution of the issue of reunification by foreign forces including the United States.
The United States, chiefly responsible for the tragic division of Korea, is a strumbling block in the way of Korea's reunification.
The United States has never been interested in peace on the Korean peninsula and its reunification.
It is its view that if reconciliation, unity, peace and reunification are achieved on the Korean peninsula, it will deprive Washington of any justification for its continued military presence in South Korea and, furthermore, endanger the realization of its strategy for domination over this region. That is why the U.S. warmongers are taking much pain to spread false rumours in a bid to create distrust between the north and south of Korea and seek a pretext for the permanent U.S. military presence in South Korea.
The reunification of Korea is the trend of the times and the need of history.
Nobody can dampen the desire of the Korean nation for reunification.
The United States should know well that if it continues hindering Korea's reunification against the trend of history it will not escape from a stern judgement by the Korean people.