Arab News Japan

TOKYO: North Korea has once again stated that there is nothing to discuss with Japan concerning the abductions of Japanese citizens to North Korea. The issue, it says, “has already been irrevocably finally and completely resolved.” 

Lee Byeong-deok, a researcher at the Japan Research Institute of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, commented on the issue in a statement released on Tuesday.

He accused Japan of “colluding with the United States, Australia, and the European Union” to raise the matter at the United Nations.

“As in the past, this debate is nothing more than the death-defying struggle of hostile forces to tarnish the international image of our dignified republic and create an atmosphere of collective oppression,” said Lee, who referenced “the extraordinary anti-humanity crimes committed against our people in the 20th century.”

Specifically, he referred to Japan “forcibly kidnapping over 8.4 million young people, brutally massacring over a million people, and forcing 200,000 Korean women into sexual slavery,” events, he claimed, that took place when Korea was colonized by Japan.

Lee accused Japan of using the abduction issue to incite “hysterical anti-DPRK hostility,” adding, “Japan should keep in mind that insisting that the abduction issue cannot be resolved unless all the victims return home is nothing more than a vain delusion, like bringing the dead back to life. It is a waste of time for Japan to bring up unrealizable problems and carry them around on the international stage.”