North Korea has criticized Japan over a symposium it will host with the United Nations and other countries on Pyongyang's past abductions of Japanese nationals, reiterating that it sees the issue as having been resolved, state-run media said Wednesday.
"It has been completely, finally and irreversibly settled, thanks to our magnanimity and sincere efforts," Ri Pyong Dok, a researcher at the North Korean Foreign Ministry's Institute for Japan Studies, said in an article issued Tuesday, according to the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
The online U.N. symposium co-sponsored by Japan, South Korea, the United States, Australia and the European Union will be held Thursday.