N. Korea demands Japan's apology, compensation for wartime atrocities

A North Korean organization on Friday demanded Japan apologize and provide compensation for its colonial-era atrocities, and called on the withdrawal of hostile policies against Pyongyang.

The Association of Korean Victims of Forcible Drafting and Their Bereaved Families, a North Korean organization, urged Japan to "apologize and compensate our past victims and bereaved families at an early date" in a statement carried by the Korean Central News Agency.

"We will never forget Japan's atrocities even after generations and we will get back a thousand times the blood we shed," the association said, noting that some 8.4 million Koreans were forced into labor while 2 million were victims of sexual slavery after a law allowing Koreans to be forcibly drafted went into effect in 1938.

The association also slammed Japan for its "hostile policies against North Korea" and accused it of "attempting to evade responsibility by directing global attention elsewhere."

Earlier this week, Japanese authorities approved the use of high school textbooks that exclude or downplay the issue of comfort women and forced labor.

Historians say millions of Korean men were forcibly drafted into the Japanese workforce during its 1910-1945 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula. (Yonhap)