The statement said: Industrial establishments which Japan applied for registration as world cultural heritages were built during the Japanese imperialists' rule over Korea. They forced many Koreans to do slave labor to build those establishments. Hundreds of Koreans lost their lives there. Moreover, it is unreasonable for Japan to apply as heritages of industrial revolution educational establishments which trained core figures for executing its colonial policy.

A commentary of Rodong Sinmun Thursday says such mindset of the Japanese getting stronger is a reflection of the desire and will of human conscience loving justice and valuing peace.

The foundation of the industrial development of Japan, a country which boasted of "rapid growth", was laid by wealth made at the cost of blood and sweat shed by the Koreans, the news analyst says, and goes on:

Unprecedented were mental, human and material sufferings inflicted on the Koreans during and after the Japanese imperialists' rule over Korea. Japan should have already made apology and reparations for the state-sponsored crimes committed against the Koreans.

It is almost 70 years since the defeat of the Japanese imperialists. Japan, however, remains unchanged in its wrong stand and attitude toward its past crimes.

If the Japanese authorities have conscience as politicians responsible for the destiny of the country and the nation, they should, though belatedly, be honest before history and sincere before humankind, to begin with.