Pyongyang, October 31 (KCNA) -- A senior official of the Japanese Foreign Ministry, when interviewed by south Korean reporters recently, asserted "it is the consistent stand of the Japanese government that the issue of claim had already found a complete and final solution" under the Japan-south Korea "agreement" as far as the issue of comfort women for the Imperial Japanese Army is concerned.

Rodong Sinmun Monday observes in a bylined commentary in this regard:

What he uttered is a malignant mud-slinging, mockery and blatant challenge to the Korean nation as it was despicable and mean tongue lashing grossly distorting the reality.

The commentary cites facts to prove that the Japan-south Korea "agreement" concluded in 1965 was an illegal and invalid one.

It goes on:

More than four decades since the signing of the agreement are a crime-woven history in which Japan revealed its mean and shameless nature and vulgar morality by working hard to evade its responsibility for settling its past wrongs. This being a hard reality, the Japanese authorities talked about "the final settlement" of the issue of claim. What they seek through this is an ulterior aim to totally evade the settlement of the past by glossing over the issue of the settlement of the past including the issue of comfort women for the Imperial Japanese Army.

By evading the settlement of its past, Japan seeks to imbue the Japanese people with the militarist outlook on history and hurl them into battlefields for reinvasion. The lies told by them are aimed to deceive the fair public opinion and divert elsewhere the attention of the Korean and other people of the world demanding Japan's settlement of its past.

Japan's settlement of its past crimes is not an issue that allows it to evade the settlement. It is an unavoidable state responsibility and political and moral obligation of Japan in view of international law, ethics and morality.

The DPRK remains unchanged in its stand as it declared that it could never recognize the Japan-south Korea "agreement" but decisively rejected it the moment it was concluded.

The Japanese reactionaries would be well advised to bear in mind that their reckless attempt to evade the settlement of the past would only bring misfortune to them.