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Month: April 2019

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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.

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Chairman, Seishiro Sugihara

Today, in the 21st century, a war of controversy over another country’s history should never be allowed essentially. However, Japan has been subject to groundless war on history staged by other countries and history of Japan has been unreasonably degraded.

Moreover, presently in the 21st century, there still exist states that are totally dominated by a single party or family. In such states, a dictatorial party or family tries to maintain its absolute rule, harshly oppressing the people’s human rights domestically, and incessantly carrying out the policy of expansion and enlargement internationally to have the people realize the value of the despotic rule. They disrupt international order without limit. Therefore, any state ruled by a single party or family is an entity totally impermissible in the 21st century. In carrying out its policy of expansion and enlargement, such state not only uses military forces but also stages historical, legal and psychological warfare.

On September 10, 2013, the People’s Campaign for the Truth of Comfort Women was organized, unifying various bodies which had been individually fighting to resolve the issue of comfort women. In July 2014, this organization sent its first research delegation to the United Nations in Geneva. In July 2015, the organization made a speech at the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women for the first time.

In the first place, words “sex slaves” referring to comfort women were first used when a certain Japanese lawyer said that comfort women were “sex slaves” during his speech at the United Nations in 1992. Had there been an organization like this at the time and had a delegation been sent to the United Nations to immediately protest and counterargue against the lawyer’s speech, the idea of identifying comfort women with sex slaves would have never been conceived nor disseminated to the world. The movement of building statues of comfort women all over the world on the part of Korea would have never taken place.

Through this bitter experience, we have learned how important it is to disseminate historical controversy to the world. We have started this study institute to disseminate historical controversy to the world from the standpoint of Japan, to protect Japan from groundless criticism against our history and cope with the boundless warfare over history. We are firmly determined to play a vital role in this endeavor.