After "1868 Meiji Restoration", Japan called for "diplomacy for conquering Korea" and, to this end, it sent a military vessel "Unyo-maru" to the sea off Korea's Kanghwa Island in 1875.

Japan's forces aboard the vessel made a premeditated armed provocation against the Korean army. Later, Japan tried hard to pass the buck for the armed conflict to the Korean side.

Its provocation went on in November and December that year.

In January 1876, Japan dispatched to Korea more than 800 troops aboard six vessels, together with a delegation for talks.

They took measurement of Korea's territorial waters and came up to the sea off Chojijin of Kanghwa Island early in February.

The invaders deployed some 400 troops and four artillery guns at the talks site, pressurizing the Korean side's delegate to sign a draft treaty they had already worked out. They threatened that relations between the two countries would be severed and Japanese troops would land on Korea if there was no positive reply from Korea.

Moreover, they refused to write down the articles proposed by the Korean side in the treaty. Thus, the 12-article "Kanghwa Island Treaty" was one-sidedly inked.

The treaty provided Japan with all privileged rights in Korea, paving the way for aggression of Korea, to say nothing of its interference in Korea's political and economic affairs.

Now the Japanese reactionaries have persistently claimed the ownership of the Tok Islets, an inviolable part of Korea's territory, far from making an apology for the hideous crimes it committed against the Korean people in the past.

Han Ung Sik, a 36-year-old Pyongyang citizen, told KCNA:

"Japan can never hush up the crimes it committed during its occupation of Korea, no matter how much water may flow under bridge.

It should abandon its claim to the islets at once."