Pyongyang, August 29 (KCNA) -- The following is the full text of a joint appeal of the North, South and Overseas Side Committees for Implementing June 15 Joint Declaration adopted at the joint academic seminar for checking Japan's moves to grab Tok Islets and urging Japan to settle its past crimes held on Monday:

The Japanese imperialists' tentacles of aggression and colonial rule are persistently stretched to the Koreans even today though the old century is replaced by a new one.

The Japanese prime minister said on August 10 last year that he "expressed apology in deep remorse and reflection" on the lapse of a centenary since the fabrication of the "Korea-Japan Annexation Treaty". But it was nothing but wordplay.

The Japanese authorities justify Japan's colonial rule over Korea under the signboard of "modernization" in middle school textbooks on social subjects which went through the screening in 2011. They deleted from most of the textbooks published in the past such hideous crimes against humanity as the massacre of Koreans during the great Kanto Quake and the issue of "comfort women" for the Imperial Japanese Army in a bid to conceal them.

They are also bringing to light Japan's attempt to grab Tok Islets, part of the inviolable territory of Korea.

They passed through screening middle school textbooks on social subjects raising a claim to Tok Islets in March. Japan released a diplomatic blue book in April and the "defense white paper" in August, shameful behaviors asserting that Tok Islets belong to Japan. Such moves touched off towering indignation among the Koreans.

Japan is also becoming evermore undisguised in its unreasonable discrimination and political persecution of the Koreans in Japan, victims of the Japanese imperialists' colonial rule and their descendants.

The Japanese authorities also excluded only Korean schools in Japan from the "tuition-waiver program for senior high schools." They are stepping up such anti-human rights and unethical discriminating policies as excluding them from assistance to the work for recovering from the damage done by the massive quake that hit East Japan and the ensuing tsunami.

Japan is infringing upon the territorial sovereignty of the neighboring country and discriminating against the Koreans in Japan while distorting and hiding its war of aggression and colonial rule in the past, far from making apology and reparation for them. This is an indication that Japan's policy of aggression is going on.

Japan, stop at once its moves to grab Tok Islets!

Japan has persisted in its attempt to make the issue of the islets an international dispute with the far-fetched assertion that the islets belong to it and the U.S. is taking the attitude of conniving at and sympathizing with it.

But many data including maps and old records dating back to several centuries ago prove that the islets are actually part of the territory of Korea from a historical and legal point of view.

Japan's scheme to reduce the islets to a disputed region is absolutely intolerable as it revealed its wild ambition to reinvade Northeast Asia and Korea.

Japan, make apology and reparation for its war of aggression and all other crimes it committed during its colonial rule!

The hypocrisy of "reflection" uttered by the Japanese prime minister last year was brought to light by Japan's repeated claims to Tok Islets and distortion of its past history of aggression.

Japan can never forge relations of peace and cooperation with any country without making apology and reparation for its war of aggression and colonial rule in the past.

The Japanese government, make a formal apology and reparation to the victims of its war of aggression and colonial rule including the victims of the sexual slavery for the Imperial Japanese Army!

Stop distorting history in textbooks but educate the young generation in peace and human rights by use of textbooks telling truth about Japan's war of aggression and colonial rule!

The Japanese authorities, immediately stop all acts of hostility toward the Koreans in Japan and national discrimination against them and ensure their human rights, the right to existence and the right to national education!

Let us courageously turn out in the struggle to force Japan to redress its past crimes and check its moves to seize Tok Islets!

It is a common task for all the Koreans to force Japan to redeem its crime-woven past and foil its moves to grab Tok Islets. But the south side's "government" is preventing the people in the north and the south from meeting each other by putting the "May 24 measure" into force.

It is very regretful that the north-south cooperation and solidarity to denounce Japan failed due to the present "government" as evidenced by the fact that the north side's delegation could not attend the international seminar on the issue of the comfort women for the Imperial Japanese Army held in Seoul and the seminar could not be held in Kaesong.

It is necessary to reenergize at an early date cooperation and solidarity among the organizations and figures of all social standings in the north and the south.

The political parties, organizations and personages at home and abroad!

Let us force Japan to redeem its past crimes and foil its moves to seize Tok Islets in order to protect the dignity and honor of the nation.