North Korea criticizes Japan for requesting summit, saying it ”condemns its millennium-old enemy”

North Korea held a debate to denounce Japan, drawing attention as a reaction after Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi expressed her desire to meet with Chairman Kim Jong-un.
On the 13th, the Korean Central News Agency reported that "a history department debate to expose and condemn the eternal crimes of Japan, the arch enemy of a thousand years, was held at the Academy of Social Sciences on the 12th."
The debaters denounced Japan's colonial rule, saying, "Even as time passes and generations change hundreds or thousands of times, the Japanese Empire, our sworn enemy for a thousand years, will not be able to defeat our people."
The historical wounds left behind by the Korean people will never heal, and we must pay the blood price of revenge a thousand times over.”
The Director of the Korean Institute of History, Kim Young-hee, Deputy Director of the Korean Central Museum of History, and researchers at the Academy of Social Sciences, Cho Myong-chol and Cho Hee-seong, attended the event and discussed the theme of "Anti-Japanese Imperialism"
The North Korea debate was held after Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi requested a summit with North Korea, drawing attention.
According to the source, immediately after taking office on the 21st of last month, Prime Minister Takaichi requested the North Korean side to hold a summit meeting. Prime Minister Takaichi recently attended the "National Conference Calling for the Early Return of Japanese Abduction Victims" held in Tokyo.
He attended the meeting and said, "We will do our utmost to realize the return of the abduction victims as soon as possible," and added, "We have already conveyed to the North Korean side our desire to hold a summit meeting."
"If this issue is resolved, it will be of great benefit not only to our country (Japan), but also to North Korea and the international community," he said. However, North Korea has not responded in any way to this.
Meanwhile, Kim Yo-jong, deputy director of the Workers' Party, said in a speech last March that "we will ignore and reject any contact or negotiations with the Japanese side."
The statement was issued at a time when it was becoming apparent, through statements by high-ranking Japanese officials, that Japan intended to make the abduction issue an agenda item at the North Korea-Japan summit.
Kim also stated in a speech last February that the abduction issue had "already been resolved," but the Japanese government cannot accept this claim.
We take the position that: