A group of South Korean independence fighters lashed out over Japan's fresh apology for its brutal colonial rule over the Korean Peninsula on Wednesday, accusing Japan of failing to admit the illegitimacy of its forced annexation.
Ahead of the centenary of Japan's colonization of Korea later this month, Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan apologized Tuesday for what he called the "suffering" of Korean people brought by his country's colonial rule from 1910 to 1945, with words of "deep remorse" and "heartfelt apology."
However, the Korean Liberation Association, which represents some 6,600 independence fighters during the colonial rule, dismissed Kan's latest apology as insincere.
"It's so disappointing because there is no mention of admitting the illegitimacy of the forced annexation in the apology," said Kim Young-il, head of the association, in a press conference.
"This clearly shows that the Japanese government has no willingness to sincerely apologize to the Korean people," Kim told
reporters, denouncing Kan's statement of apology as "meaningless political rhetoric."
More than 1,000 intellectuals from both South Korea and Japan declared last month that the annexation treaty was invalid from the
beginning because it was forcefully signed as a result of Tokyo's invasion strategy.
Japan's harsh colonization of Korea has been a deep-rooted historical thorn in relations between the two countries. Many Koreans were forcefully enlisted as Japan's front-line soldiers, laborers or sex slaves in military-run brothels.
Kim also called for Japanese Emperor Akihito, the son of Japan's wartime emperor Hirohito, to apologize to those who suffered
during the colonial rule.
"Unless the Japanese emperor kneels down and apologizes to the victims from the forced occupation, any gesture of apology by Japan would be considered an act of deception," Kim said.