Thank you, Chair,
During the Right of Reply in this session, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea responded to the statement made by the Japanese Representative at the High Level Segment.
DPRK argued issues related to the “forced laborers” which were not forced, “sex slaves” who were “war time prostitutes” and North Korean schools subsidiaries.
But his arguments were totally baseless.
Regarding the abduction issue, DPRK has been continuously blamed by the international community as one of the worst inhumane crimes.
Koreans who worked for the Japanese companies during World War II were just “wartime laborers” rather than “forced laborers,” and entirely different from “slave laborers” which DPRK representative said in his speech.
Comfort women were “wartime prostitutes.” We strongly believe the most important thing to resolve historical issues are “fact-centered approach” rather than “victim-centered approach” which rests merely on emotions and subjectivities.
A “victim-centered approach” relies exclusively on the oral testimonies of self-proclaimed comfort women. However testimonies must be substantiated with evidences and subjected to cross-examination. Indeed, testimonies by so-called comfort women are not based on hard evidence.
South Korean schools are getting government subsidiaries based on the rule of the Ministry of Education however North Korean schools are not following it.
But if they follow the rules, they can get it even from the next day.
DPRK is requested to sincerely face the problems, stop violating the human rights and return all the abductees abducted from Japan which DPRK admitted that their agents kidnapped.
Thank you very much.