North Korea on Tuesday warned Japan against pressing too hard on the issue of abductions of its citizens by North Korean agents, claiming the issue has already been resolved.
The North's Foreign Ministry also called anew on Japan to pay compensation for abuses committed during its colonial occupation of the Korean Peninsula, such as forcing women into sex slavery.
"No matter how hard they may peddle the 'abduction issue' in a bid to hide the crimes committed against all the Koreans, our people will blame Japan for all its past crimes and force it to pay for them," the ministry said, referring to Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule of the peninsula.
"The relations between the (North) and Japan are, in essence, those between a victim and an assailant. Therefore, the latter ought to make due apology and compensation understandable to the victim if the bilateral relations are to be settled," the North said in a statement carried by the country's official Korean Central News Agency.
In 2002, the North admitted it had abducted 13 Japanese citizens in the 1970s and 80s to train spies. Pyongyang let five return home, but said the other eight were dead _ although Japanese believe some are still alive.
Last week, the North revealed that a South Korean man allegedly abducted decades ago had been found in the North without saying how he got there.
DNA tests show that the man, Kim Yong-nam, very likely fathered a child in North Korea born to a Japanese abductee, Megumi Yokota. Kim is being allowed to meet his South Korean mother later this month at the North's Diamond Mountain resort during planned reunions of families divided by the inter-Korean border.
The North has denied kidnapping any South Koreans, claiming that they all came voluntarily.
Japan has moved to impose sanctions on the North if it fails to resolve the abduction issue, a move the North has previously said would be tantamount to war. Japan also seeks to raise the issue at the upcoming G-8 summit in Russia next month.
The North said Tuesday the abduction issue had already been resolved, alleging Japan aims to "isolate the (North) by taking advantage of the U.S. hostile policy toward it."
"As already clarified by the (North) more than once, the 'abduction issue' had been completely settled thanks to its sincere efforts," the Foreign Ministry said.
In April, Yokota's mother, Sakie Yokota, traveled to Washington and met U.S. President George W. Bush, who condemned the North as "a heartless country that would separate loved ones."
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