The statement accused Japan of deciding to take sanctions measures against the DPRK before others, independent of the UN sanctions, thus unilaterally breaking the May, 2014 DPRK-Japan inter-governmental Stockholm agreement.

The sanctions measures threw a wet blanket over the painstaking efforts for normalization of the DPRK-Japan relations, the statement said.

The "Special Investigation Committee" of the DPRK has made sincere efforts to implement the DPRK-Japan inter-governmental agreement, the statement noted, concluding that Japan sowed the seed of trouble in the relationship with the DPRK.