Japan Assailed for Scrapping DPRK-Japan Inter-governmental Agreement

Pyongyang, February 12 (KCNA) -- The Japanese government on Wednesday decided to make the first move to take sanctions measures against the DPRK independent of the UN sanctions under the pretext of the H-bomb test and satellite launch of the DPRK.
    The measures would reportedly include the expansion of objects to be subject to the freeze of fund and to the restrictions as for the personnel visits and remittance as well as re-effectuation of those sanctions which Japan partially lifted under the May, 2014 DPRK-Japan inter-governmental Stockholm agreement.
    The "Special Investigation Committee" of the DPRK issued a statement Friday denouncing the Japanese government for scrapping even the agreement reached at the inter-governmental talks without hesitation, being bereft of elementary fidelity.
    The Japanese reactionaries, who are accustomed to the bad habit of abusing the sincerity of the dialogue partner to use it as a source of provocation, reneged on all their commitments made in the inter-governmental agreement by citing an issue which has nothing to do with its implementation, and made a frontal challenge to the DPRK, the statement said, and went on:
    We have already told Japan enough what consequences it may face for its reckless acts.
    But the Abe regime reapplied the sanctions which had been lifted and even took additional sanctions. This is little short of the declaration of its own scrapping of the Stockholm agreement.
    We clarify as follows our just stand now that Japan revealed its sinister intention to push the DPRK-Japan relations into a stalemate and to keep stand-off with the DPRK to the last:
    Firstly, the comprehensive investigation into all the Japanese that had been under way under the inter-governmental Stockholm agreement will be totally stopped and the "Special Investigation Committee" be dissolved from February 12, 2016.
    Secondly, Japan's provocative acts of hostility toward the DPRK will ensue stronger countermeasures.
    The Abe regime has to hold full responsibilities for causing such a grave consequence as today's. -0-