N. Korea denounces Japan's past wrongs in debate, silent on Takaichi's summit offer
Kim Yo-jong, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's sister, is seen in this July 31, 2023 photo. Yonhap
North Korea has held an academic debate denouncing Japan's past wrongdoings, labeling the country an "inveterate enemy," state media reported Thursday, while remaining silent on the new Japanese leader's offer for a summit.
A history-sector debate took place at a social science institute in Pyongyang on Wednesday, "divulging the wrongdoing of Japan from the past, an inveterate enemy," the Korean Central News Agency said.
The KCNA quoted participants as saying during the debate, "The historical wounds that the inveterate enemy, imperial Japan, inflicted on our people will never heal even after the passage of time or hundreds of generations, and should be repaid with retaliation thousands of times greater."
A history institute chief from Kim Il Sung University, a senior museum official and other researchers also presented theses exposing "inhumane criminal acts" by Japan, the KCNA said.
The report comes as Pyongyang remains silent on new Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's reported proposal to hold a summit between the two state leaders, shortly after her inauguration last month. Japan has reportedly received no response.
In a statement in March last year, Kim Yo-jong, the influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, warned that the country rejects any contact or communications with Japan, as bilateral disputes over Japanese nationals abducted by the North remain unresolved.