The statement recalled that the decoration agency pressurized people not to sing a song related to the May 18 Kwangju popular uprising at an event marking it.

Reflected in the song which everybody sang in streets during the uprising is the will of the people to carry forward the spirit of the uprisers who laid down their lives while fighting against the dictatorial regime to achieve democracy of society, it said.

The statement accused the ultra-right conservative forces of intensifying their anachronistic acts of trampling down democracy and human rights at the beck and call of the present regime, while working hard to protect the dictatorial regime which killed people at the point of bayonet and distort history.

The behavior of the agency amounts to joining the ultra-right conservative forces which insult the departed soul of the uprisers who fought for democracy and national reunification against the dictatorship, it held.

If the agency defends the dictatorial regime's murder of people, it will face popular resistance, the statement warned.