DPRK condemns Japanese politician for verbal provocation

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Saturday condemned a Japanese politician for calling for "starving to death North Koreans" over its nuclear and missile programs.

Masanori Tanimoto, governor of Ishikawa prefecture in western Japan, has called for cutting food supplies to the DPRK to "starve North Koreans to death" and bringing about the collapse of the country's social system.

"The governor of Ishikawa Prefecture of Japan said on June 21 that the 'North Korean people should be starved to death by cutting off provision of foodstuff' over the fact that the DPRK took measures for self-defense," said Rodong Sinmum, the official daily of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea.

The daily compared Tanimoto to "a fascist murderer who is obsessed with misanthropic idea which casts into the shade (Nazi German leader Adolf) Hitler."

"His words remind one of the Japanese imperialists who ran amuck to massacre Koreans during the great earthquakes in Kanto area of Japan" in the 1920s, it said.

"The reckless remarks made by Japanese politicians are a revelation of the ultra chauvinism and the unchanged policy on exterminating the Korean nation," it added.

According to Japan's Kyodo News, Tanimoto retracted his remarks on June 22, citing the importance of "respecting human lives."

But he said sanctions imposed on the DPRK must be "effective," Kyodo News reported.

Source : Xinhua