A North Korean official urged Japan on Friday to take responsibility for its "sinful history," including the forced mobilization of millions of Koreans during its 1910-1945 colonial rule, and to officially apologize and sufficiently compensate the victims and their families.
Ri Jong Hyok, vice chairman of the Korean Asia-Pacific Peace Committee, made the remarks in a speech at a conference on the subject held in Goyang, north of Seoul, with some 300 participants from 10 Asia-Pacific countries.
Ri condemned Japan as "a war criminal nation that invaded, plundered and committed massacres in many countries," and called its forced mobilization of Koreans as soldiers, laborers and brothel workers "a malicious criminal act of killing the nation."