The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Thursday clarified its stance on the DPRK-Japan inter-governmental talks for normalization of ties, calling on Japan to make up for its war past and conduct economic cooperation with the DPRK.

The talks, which took place in Beijing from Saturday to Wednesday, covered the abduction and security issue, normalization of diplomatic ties, the implementation of the DPRK-Japan Pyongyang Declaration adopted on Sept. 17, 2002 and other issues of mutual concern.

The DPRK urged Japan to conduct economic cooperation with the DPRK as stipulated in the 2002 declaration, according to the reports of DPRK's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

The DPRK maintained that Japan should pay for "the hideous crimes" such as forcible drafting of more than 8.4 million Koreans, massacre of more than 1 million of them and taking away 200,000 Korean women as "comfort women" for the Imperial Japanese Army, the KCNA said.

As regards the status of the Koreans in Japan, the DPRK side requested the Japanese side to stop suppression of the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan and discrimination against the Koreans in Japan, guarantee and protect Korean residents' educational rights and economic activities in Japan, the report said.

The DPRK also reiterated its stand that Japan should unconditionally return all the cultural treasures it damaged in Korea during its occupation.

Concerning the security issue, the DPRK urged Japan to refrain from conducting such acts as enactment of a war law, revision of the constitution, "nuclear weaponization and space militarization through the launch of spy satellites," said the KCNA report.

The DPRK also strongly demanded Japan to "extradite the Japanese criminals who had lured and abducted DPRK citizens in recent years," the KCNA said.

The two countries, which held talks in Beijing on Wednesday without any major progress, agreed to continue the talks at a proper time in the future.

Source: Xinhua