KCNA Commentary Blasts Japanese Dietmen's Visit to Yasukuni Shrine

 Pyongyang, December 21 (KCNA) -- Ninety-nine dietmen of Japan flocked to the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo on Dec. 7, a day before the anniversary when the Japanese imperialists started the Pacific War.

This has provoked fierce criticism worldwide.

On Dec. 9, the China Daily issued a commentary which said it was by no means accidental that they visited the shrine the day, recalling the fact that 80 years ago, Japan made a surprise attack on the Pearl Harbor and killed thousands of people.

The issue of the visit to the shrine, the center of inciting militarism and a symbol of overseas aggression, is a matter of international justice and conscience that admits of no argument about when and where they should be raised.

But we cannot but take a serious note of the time of the recent group visit, resumed in two years, as it reflected Japan's ambition to realize the old dream of the "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere" without fail.

The Japanese reactionaries, who used visits to the shrine as important occasions for the revival of militarism and the realization of the ambition for revanchism, have visited it under pretexts of spring and autumn ancestral rite days in fear of worldwide condemnation.

Not content with it, Japan set August 15 - the anniversary of Japan's defeat - as the day of visit to the shrine and made it a regular event. And they are also on the way of making the anniversary of the Pacific War the day of visit to the shrine.

For the war criminal state, which had inflicted tremendous war damage on the world people, to console and praise the departed souls of the war provokers and war criminals on the day before the anniversary precisely means the praise for the war crimes. This is an insult to the people of the damaged countries and a challenge to the human conscience and international justice.

The recent group visit clearly showed that there is no change in the aggressive nature of the Japanese reactionaries who are sharpening the sword for reinvasion solely to take revenge for its defeat, without sense of the past crimes.

Contending that the negative movement of Japan proves once again Japan's reactionary trend to continue hiding and denying the aggression crimes, the international community strongly urges Japan to properly reflect on its history of aggression and get the trust from the Asian neighboring countries and the international community through its practical action.

The reckless acts of the Japanese reactionaries oblivious of the lesson of the history will certainly face punishment by justice and mindset. -0-