According to data available, there were about 40,000 Koreans in Sakhalin as of August 1945 when the Japanese imperialists suffered a defeat. Most of the wages unpaid to those Koreans who were forced to slave by the Japanese imperialists in Sakhalin at that time are still registered in the account books of Japanese banks but Japan has refused to pay them, feigning ignorance of them.

Minju Joson Thursday observes in a signed commentary in this regard:

The issue of paying reparation for the damage done to the Koreans in Sakhalin is a historical task to be fulfilled by the Japanese government in a responsible manner as it cropped up due to the Japanese imperialists in the past from every point of view.

It is due obligation and duty of the assailant to make an apology and reparation to the victim in this world as the former brought misfortune and pain to the latter.

It is only Japan that has persistently shunned reparation for the damage, denying the blood-stained history woven with crimes even today when more than half a century has passed since the end of the war.

If Japan were to pay the Koreans for the mental and material damage done to them, Japan's offer of its whole territory would not be enough to do so.

Japan's settlement of its past is not a matter which allows it to evade it but a legal and moral obligation and duty to be fulfilled by it under any circumstances.

Japan's persistent efforts to dodge the settlement of its past would only add to its crimes and render it more bitterly refuted and condemned by the international community.