The statement read:

On March 1, 1919 the Korean people's grudge and anger at the Japanese imperialists' outrageous colonial rule over Korea finally exploded into a nation-wide anti-Japanese resistance.

Stunned by the anti-Japanese struggle of the Korean people, the Japanese imperialists hurled all their repressive forces including its army and policemen into indiscriminately massacring the demonstrators, killing more than 7,500, wounding over 15,900 and arresting and imprisoning at least 46,900 in a matter of three months.

The murderers killed a 7 year-old boy by tearing his mouth with a dagger for the mere reason that he "hurrahed for independence of Korea." They even skinned the head of a 16 year-old girl and dismembered her to death for the reason that she stood in the van of the peaceful demonstration. The shuddering mass murder was just like madness of brutes and rampage of cannibals.

The blood shed by the innocent Koreans permeated deep into this land and it seems that their grudge and angry shouts are still swirling around there.

Not only that grudge but also the pain suffered by the Korean nation every day over 40 odd years due to the evil deeds committed by the Japanese imperialists in a bid to wipe Korea and the Korean nation off the face of the earth can neither be forgotten nor be healed easily, no matter that there was expiation for the sins.

Nevertheless, Japan is still rubbing salt into the wound of the victims, twisting the justice of history and committing all sorts of evil deeds little short of the past crimes, far from honestly reflecting on the crime-woven past and paying for it.

It is as clear as noonday that Japan is harboring a wild dream for reinvasion as it has not admitted its past crimes nor reflected on them and nor compensated for them.

Unshakable is the stand and will of the DPRK over the issue of Japan's atonement for the crime-woven past.

No matter how much water may flow under the bridge, Japan can never gloss over that issue if it fails to make a sincere apology and reparation for the damage and pain it inflicted upon the Korean nation in the past.

The Korean nation will surely force Japan to atone for the century-old crimes recorded in history and to pay for the blood shed by the Koreans.