JCP Shii addresses Chongryun Congress

Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo attended the 19th Congress of the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan (Chongryun) on May 25 in Tokyo. It was the first time in 18 years for a JCP leader to speak at the Chongryun Congress.

Shii first expressed respect for and solidarity with Chongryun activities for the defense of Korean residents' living conditions and basic rights, and its efforts toward achieving peace and unification of the Korean Peninsula. He described the resumption of relations between the JCP and Chongryun as historic.

The two organizations maintained friendly relations for many years after World War II, but their relations broke down in the first half of the 1980s. In October 2000, the two organizations held talks and agreed to resume exchanges. In the following month, Chongryun leaders attended the JCP 22nd Party Congress. Bilateral exchanges are developing at local levels as well.

Noting that the historical question has an important bearing on friendship between Japan and North Korea, Shii emphasized that the key to developing negotiations for normalizing diplomatic relations with North Korea is for the Japanese government to apologize for its colonial rule of Korea as an illegal act, and pay compensation for its historic crime.

Shii stressed the importance of opposing the adverse currents which affirm and glorify Japan's war of aggression and its colonial rule, referring to the recent school textbook controversy and cabinet members' visits to Yasukuni Shrine.

Also, Shii recalled the prewar history in which the JCP strenuously fought against the absolute Tennoist system and its colonial rule of Korea and Taiwan.

Shii concluded his speech by expressing hopes for a successful Chongryun Congress, the development of mutual exchanges and cooperation on agreed points, and further Chongryun advances. (end)