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North Korea urges new Japan government to apologize for WWII 'comfort women'

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] North Korea called on the newly-elected Japanese government Monday to apologize for its use of Asian "comfort women" by the Japanese Army in World War II. In an editorial published in the communist party newspaper Rodong Sinmum, North Korea called on Japan to repudiate its past and urged it to emulate Germany, which apologized for its crimes during World War II and paid compensation to the victims. The editorial comes just a day after a major election victory for the opposition Democratic Party of Japan, marking only the second time that the Liberal Democrats have been out of power since 1955. The Liberal Democrats, the party of former prime minister Shinzo Abe, have denied that the Japanese Army officially forced women to become prostitutes. In July 2007, the US House of Representatives passed a resolution calling on Japan to apologize for its use of comfort women during WWII. Abe dismissed the resolution, claiming it was based on erroneous information, and claimed the women were professional prostitutes paid for their services. Abe has expressed sympathy and apologized for the "situation" faced by so-called "comfort women" but stopped short of explicitly acknowledging the alleged roles of the wartime military and government in facilitating the practice. Japan has previously accepted that Japanese soldiers coerced women into prostitution but denied government involvement.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on August 31, 2009 (boomark / email).