More than 300 civic and public organizations took part in the ceremony.

Speakers said urged the U.S. and Japan to make an apology for dividing the Korean peninsula.

They demanded Japan make an apology to all victims of forced drafting and immediately stop the suppression of Koreans in Japan.

Now that Japan is planning for a war according to the "right to collective self-defense," they said, adding that the south Korean regime should examine the issue of retracting the humiliating "agreement" with Japan.

Stressing the need for all Koreans to pool their efforts to check Japan's rearmament for exercise of the "right to collective self-defense," they called for protecting the dignity of the nation through national cooperation.