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

This has stoked the feelings of bitterness toward Japan among the Korean people as it was part of the Japanese reactionaries' vicious distortion of history aimed to persistently whitewash Japan's crime-woven past.

It is universally recognized that the "treaty" fabricated by the Japanese imperialists was completely illegal.

The Japanese imperialist aggressors' armed invasion and their harsh colonial rule over Korea brought tremendous mental and material damage and losses to its people and caused them untold misfortune and hardships.

This notwithstanding, the conservative media of Japan made such reckless remark that the Japanese imperialists' past colonial rule over Korea contributed to its modernization. This is an intolerable insult to the Korean people.

The Japanese reactionaries have persistently schemed to distort the crime-woven history. Lurking behind this is their sinister wild ambition to incite militarism in the Japanese society by distorting and whitewashing the Japanese imperialists' history of aggression at any cost and thus create atmosphere favorable for overseas expansion and realize their ambition for reinvasion.

What should not be overlooked is that their undisguised move to tamper with history is not an issue to be dealt with some media or individual politicians only.

The clumsy farce of issuing a statement of "apology" staged by Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan on Aug. 10 vividly showed the stand and attitude of the Japanese government toward the past crime-woven history as it was nothing but a cynical ploy to evade the responsibility for the crime of aggression.

Japan should immediately stop distorting the history and take honest approach to the issue of its redemption, clearly facing up to the trend of the international community advancing toward the reconciliation and cooperation after breaking with the inglorious past.