Korean People Will Force Japan to Pay for Its Past Crimes

[PhilipLaos]

From: http://www.kcna.co.jp/index-e.htm

Pyongyang, January 20 (KCNA) -- The Japanese imperialists poisoned Kojong, emperor of the Feudal Joson Dynasty, to death on Jan. 20, 1919. This proves that they are the sworn enemy of the Korean people and cruel murderers who defy international law and human ethics and morality. Rodong Sinmun Sunday says this in a bylined article. Citing concrete facts to prove that they poisoned emperor Kojong, representative of the state sovereignty of the Korean nation, to death and made desperate efforts to cover up this crime, the article goes on:

A lot of materials on aggression and wars are recorded in history, but it is hard to find such hordes of brigands which set extermination of other nation as a state policy and pursued it so brutally and harshly as the Japanese imperialist aggressors.

The misfortune and pain the Japanese imperialists inflicted upon the Korean people through their harsh colonial rule are still felt. This being a hard reality, the Japanese reactionaries are becoming more desperate in their moves to deny the monstrous crimes committed by the Japanese imperialists in the past, far from redeeming them.

Their reckless actions are aimed to repeat their crime-woven history.

The army and the people of the DPRK do not forget this history and are waiting for an opportunity to settle it. They will certainly force Japan to redeem all crimes committed by it for centuries including those committed during its more than 40 years of colonial rule period, during the Korean war and heinous hostile acts perpetrated against the DPRK in the post-war period.

The DPRK will surely force Japan to pay a thousand-fold price for its unheard-of crimes.

[Rojik]

Awesome. Kidnap some more fishermen. That'll show 'em.

[Hida Akechi]

Oh geez the circus that is NK needs to disappear once and for all.

I know this is entertaining to you Philip, and I repsect that. But sometimes it just makes me facepalm a little too hard when I read their tripe.

[PhilipLaos]

Originally Posted by Hida Akechi

Oh geez the circus that is NK needs to disappear once and for all.

I know this is entertaining to you Philip, and I repsect that. But sometimes it just makes me facepalm a little too hard when I read their tripe.

You're right that I find it (linguistically) entertaining and that's my main reason for occasionally posting these official North Korean statements.

But I'd like to present a couple of observations regarding this particular one:

1. The North Koreans do have substantial historical justification for being massively pissed off with the Japanese.

2. North Korea is a potentially world order-changing player on the world stage, so we would do well to not ignore, or not refuse to consider, what they are saying just because their diatribes come across as seriously comic to our eyes and ears.


Philip

[Pruitt]

What seems funny to me is a lot of North Koreans are in Japan earning a living and sending home money. This may be all the help Japan will give the North Koreans! If Pyongyang gets too annoying the Japanese can send their People home and replace them with Filipinos!

Things can always get worse in the People's Paradise!

Pruitt

[OpanaPointer]

Originally Posted by PhilipLaos

2. North Korea is a potentially world order-changing player on the world stage, so we would do well to not ignore, or not refuse to consider, what they are saying just because their diatribes come across as seriously comic to our eyes and ears.

They're held captive by the system. The leadership is quite mad now, and the meltdown may be spectacularly bloody, worse than Baghdad.

[Hida Akechi]

Originally Posted by PhilipLaos

You're right that I find it (linguistically) entertaining and that's my main reason for occasionally posting these official North Korean statements.

But I'd like to present a couple of observations regarding this particular one:

1. The North Koreans do have substantial historical justification for being massively pissed off with the Japanese.

2. North Korea is a potentially world order-changing player on the world stage, so we would do well to not ignore, or not refuse to consider, what they are saying just because their diatribes come across as seriously comic to our eyes and ears.


Philip

Well, you do make good points--you're right again (you do that alot ). But I would never support NK against the Japanese myself, what's done is done. And as long as they don't act rationally then their accusations and desires mean nothing.

[PhilipLaos]

Originally Posted by Hida Akechi

Well, you do make good points--you're right again (you do that alot ). But I would never support NK against the Japanese myself, what's done is done. And as long as they don't act rationally then their accusations and desires mean nothing.

I'm not sure about the "their accusations and desires mean nothing" part if it means 'just ignore them because they are not rational'. If something really awful were to happen, and we were uninformed about their thinking leading up to that, we would be remiss.

With that in mind, it's interesting to note which regimes the North Korean leadership regard as allies. Not exactly an august group.

Pyongyang, January 20 (KCNA) -- The dear respected Kim Jong Un, first chairman of the National Defence Commission of the DPRK, sent messages to foreign heads of state in reply to their messages sent on the occasion of the first anniversary of demise of leader Kim Jong Il.

The addressees include Bashar Al-Assad, Syrian president, Manuel Siriho N'hamadjo, president of Guinea-Bissau, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, president and commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Nigeria, Joseph Kabila Kabange, president of Democratic Congo, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, Ugandan president and Girma Wolde-Giorgis, Ethiopian president.

He in his messages expressed deep thanks to them for their messages.

In the meantime, the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea sent a message to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China to express thanks for its message.

From: http://www.kcna.co.jp/index-e.htm

[Salinator]

Originally Posted by Pruitt

What seems funny to me is a lot of North Koreans are in Japan earning a living and sending home money. This may be all the help Japan will give the North Koreans! If Pyongyang gets too annoying the Japanese can send their People home and replace them with Filipinos!

Things can always get worse in the People's Paradise!

Pruitt

I get what you're saying, but the Japanese are very racist and Filipinos are even lower in their racial chart than Koreans. Remember, the Japanese acknowledge the Wu and Han in their heritage and the Koreans are self proclaimed to be now the purest of Han.

[lirelou]

Some points on Japanese colonialism in Korea.

1 - It was the Japanese who began what we might consider Korean studies, based upon archaeology and other sciences . They did this because the two peoples do share one common genetic thread, and because they wished to make the Koreans junior partners in their empire.

2 -It was the Japanese who kick-started modern Korean industries by partnering similar Korean and Japanese industries. They did this in 1921, in response to the 1 March 1919 movement.

3 - Japanese residents were among the first to set up Korean newspapers printed in Hangul, and the fist modern hangul printing type was manufactured in Japan.

4 - Korean business and industry were partners in the Japanese takeover of Manchuria. In 1945 the largest and most modern textile mill in Northeast China was Korean owned.

5 - Many Koreans voluntarily served in the Japanese Imperial Army and its partner the Manchukuo Army, and some rose as high as general officer rank, using their Korean names. The counter-guerrilla units that scoured Manchuria in the late 30s looking for, among others, Kim Il-sung, were largely manned by ethnic Koreans.

The point here is that Japanese colonialism in Korea did not always fit a graphic novel meme. Sometimes one has to wonder if Japan's real crime in the eyes of Koreans was that they lost the war. To North Korea's credit, and it is distasteful to say so, their regime can trace it roots back to the few thousand who most resisted Japanese colonialism. Sadly, the best they can say is that they are Korean. Economically, life was better for Koreans under the Japanese than it has been for those under the Kims. As for South Koreans, the irony is that anti-Japanese feelings there are the product of an anti-Japanese defamation campaign that traces it roots to military regimes led by IJA veterans who made being Korean, per se, being anti-Japanese.

[GCoyote]

Originally Posted by lirelou

Some points on Japanese colonialism in Korea. ...

Excellent points. The deeper one gets into history, the more one learns that it is just as messy and logically inconsistent as the present.

[Crackshot]

I suppose the Japanese have an awareness of the dangers of North Korea - the regime kidnapped several citizens to teach Japanese to spies. Only a few of them are alive.

Of course, thanks to their sordid past, Japan does not enjoy good relations with many Asian countries.

[Dashy]

Originally Posted by Hida Akechi

Well, you do make good points--you're right again (you do that alot ). But I would never support NK against the Japanese myself, what's done is done. And as long as they don't act rationally then their accusations and desires mean nothing.

nice way to flick off the killing of some 30 million people. If WW2 was a competition, the Japanese won the "Kill Count" competition by an arm and a leg.

but to the point of the thread, NK be cray, I don't think I'll ever take many of their proclamations seriously till doomsday.

[OpanaPointer]

I see the concept of "original sin" still lives.

[Rojik]

Originally Posted by Dashy

nice way to flick off the killing of some 30 million people. If WW2 was a competition, the Japanese won the "Kill Count" competition by an arm and a leg.

but to the point of the thread, NK be cray, I don't think I'll ever take many of their proclamations seriously till doomsday.

Well if NK does decide to go crazy and settle some real or imagined scores then I'd rather Japan bear the brunt of it rather than anyone else. If that happened then I'll cheer the Norks all the way to their Götterdämmerung.