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Author: irichen

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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.

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Thank you, Madam Vice President,

The Republic of Korea’s Supreme Court ruled Japanese companies must pay compensation to Koreans for having been “forced” into labor during World War II.

Koreans who worked for Japanese companies at the time chose to work seeking a good wage based on their own will.

Mobilization of Korean-Japanese nationals for a mere six months was not forced and entirely within international law.

The compensation between Japan and the ROK was resolved completely and finally by the Japan-ROK agreement signed in 1965.

The Japanese Supreme Court also ruled “an individual demand is nullified.”

Demanding compensation from Japanese companies based on the Korean Supreme Court ruling is tantamount to revoking a legally binding treaty signed between two nations, which violating Japan’s sovereignty and trampling upon the rights of the Japanese people.

Korean Minister of Foreign Affairs Kang Kyung-wha addressed at this council last year and last week, repeatedly violating the same treaty and additional bilateral treaty signed in December 2015 related to the Comfort Women issue.　Treaty is a promise between nations. Even kids know the braking promise is wrong.

Before talking about the comfort women issue, Kang Kyung-wha needs to apologize to the victims of the sexual violence committed by South Korean troops during the Vietnam War and take victim-centered measures.

Why this council is tolerating the nation who always violates the bilateral treaties?

We demand this council to instruct South Korean Government to immediately undertake measures to correct their errant diplomatic relations and sincerely apologize to the Vietnamese victims called Lai-Dai-Han. 

I thank you very much for you attention, Madam Vice President.