PYONGYANG, August 13 (Itar-Tass) - Japan should give up its groundless claims for the Dokdo islands that “are an integral part of the Korean territory,” the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said on Tuesday.
The news agency said Pyongyang had issued its requirements following a public opinion poll recently published in Japan calling poll returns “absurd.” The survey suggested that most respondents considered these islands called in Japan as Takeshima Japan’s territory.
Such poll results “confirm aggressive nature of Japan’s policy that makes illegal territorial claims to neighboring countries,” the KCNA reported noting that Tokyo tried to justify its aggressive past and “to bring up the younger generation in the spirit of militarism.”
The agency said Japan’s conservative forces try to pave the way “for Japan’s another invasion of the Korean Peninsula and other Asia regions.”
The Dokdo (Takeshima) islands are a group of small islands stretching over 0.188 square kilometers east of the Korean Peninsula. These uninhabited rocks became the subject of a territorial dispute after 1945, when Korea was freed from Japan’s rule by the Soviet army. Now these islands are controlled by South Korea’s armed forces. Tokyo asserted that Seoul illegally had occupied these territories affiliated to the Empire of Japan in 1905. Pyongyang and Seoul announced in turn that these territories had always been a part of Korea.
Ahead of the national day, the 68th anniversary of Korea’s liberation from Japan, North Korea launched an active propaganda campaign against the Japanese government. Pyongyang criticizes Tokyo for revival of militarism, territorial claims, distortion of history and unwillingness to pay compensations for crimes committed in the period of Japan’s colonial rule in Korea in 1910-1945.
Pyongyang and Tokyo have no diplomatic relations and no trade and transport ties. Japan imposed a range of sanctions against North Korea after its nuclear tests and missile launches. Japan’s ports are closed for ships flying North Korea’s flags.