Rodong Sinmun Wednesday observes this in a signed commentary.

There is nothing new in his policy speech as it is a political gumption to save his face, the commentary notes, and goes on:

His utterances setting the settlement of the above-said issues as a precondition for redeeming Japan's past and normalizing its relations with the DPRK suggest that he seems to know nothing about what is the priority task for improving the bilateral relations and what is their essence.

The normalization of the relations between the two countries is not a give-and-take bargaining. It is a matter of establishing the ties of good neighborliness and friendship between the two countries on the basis of Japan's full settlement of its crime-woven past. From the present point of view, Japan's priority task is not to solve "abduction, nuclear and missile issues" but to redeem its past.

As a matter of fact, if the ruling quarters of Japan had a political vision and ability to look forward into the future, they should have raised key issues in settling Japan's past and buckled down to putting them into practice before picking up "abduction, nuclear and missile issues."

It is a mockery of the Korean people, human conscience and justice for Japan to talk about the normalization of the Japan-DPRK relations with the Japanese imperialists' 40 odd year-long occupation of Korea, their unheard-of fascist rule and human rights abuses covered up.

The issue of the DPRK-Japan relations can be solved only when confidence is built through the latter's settlement of its past. The principles, phases and order were clearly set to improve the bilateral relations. They can never improve unless Japan settles its past before other issues.

Japan should make a political decision to settle its past, a basis for improving the bilateral relations, bearing this in mind.