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In a speech marking the 88th anniversary of the March 1 Independence Movement, Roh said Japan “has to refrain from glorifying or justifying its colonial history and respect globally accepted principles of conscience. That way, it can win the respect and trust of the international community."

President Roh Moo-hyun delivers a speech marking the 88th anniversary of the March 1 Independence Movement at the Main Theater of the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts in Seoul on Thursday.

"At a recent hearing in the U.S. Congress on comfort women forced to work for Japanese soldiers, elderly victims gave vivid testimony about the unimaginable hardship they suffered,” Roh recalled. “It confirmed once again that the international community will not tolerate a Japanese cover-up of the atrocities imperial Japan committed.” The president pointed out that a local government in Japan still celebrates the seizure of Korea’s Dokdo Islets during the Russo-Japanese War, while “some Japanese make remarks that deny past wrongdoings and, what’s worse, encourage schools to teach distorted history."

A dancer performs “Salpuri,” a shamanic dance with a scarf, at a home for "comfort women" in Gwangju, Gyeonggi Province on the first anniversary of the death of activist Park Doo-ri on Thursday. At age 17 Park was forced into sex slavery by Japanese soldiers until the end of World War II. She died at 83 after a long illness.

Roh repeatedly urged Japan to be sincere about its troubled history and take proper action. "We want to be a good neighbor to Japan. The two countries maintain economic and cultural relations that cannot be severed,” he added.

Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki at a press conference responded with the customary call for “future-oriented” bilateral relations based on mutual trust and understanding. He added the two countries share a basic understanding that both should make efforts to build such future-oriented relations.

(englishnews@chosun.com )