Pyongyang again demands Tokyo settles colonial rule problems.

PYONGYANG, June 24 (Itar-Tass) -- Normalisation of the relations
between Pyongyang and Tokyo may be possible only after the settlement of
the problems, "caused by Japan's crimes over the colonial period in Korea
in 1910-1945," the DPRK's Rodong Sinmun daily wrote on Thursday.
The newspaper reacted to the earlier speech by Japan's new Prime
Minister Naoto Kan which he gave at the parliament. He supported the plan
to establish normal intergovernmental relations with Pyongyang on the
basis of settling the matters "related to its rocket-nuclear programme and
the kidnapping of Japan's citizens by North Korea's special services."
Unfortunately, the newspaper said, the ideas expressed by Kan "do not
differ from the statements made by his predecessors." Japan's authorities
"first of all should evaluate the criminal past of their country and
apologise, and not to focus on the DPRK's rocket-nuclear programme." This
may be "the only way to improve the relations between the two countries,"
Rodong Sinmun said.
Several years earlier, the DPRK confirmed the cases of kidnapping and
repatriation of five Japanese and considered the matter closed. Tokyo,
however, insists on a new investigation and states that the number of
kidnapped was much higher.
Pyongyang, in its turn, demanded several times exclude Japan from the
sextet talks on the Korean Peninsula's nuclear problem for its "non-
constructive position."
-0-kar/ast