The Korean people still remember November 17 in 1905 as the day of national ruin.

That day Japan fabricated the alleged “Ulsa Five-point Treaty” by coercing Emperor Kojong, head of the feudal Joson dynasty (1392-1910), and blackmailing his Cabinet ministers.

In a bid to seize the sovereignty of the feudal Joson dynasty, Japan forced Emperor Kojong and Cabinet ministers into accepting the draft treaty it had prepared.

But the emperor vehemently rejected it, saying “If I approve the treaty, it will lead to national ruin. So I would rather die to be buried in the ancestral temple of the royal family.”

Then Japan resorted to force of arms. A large number of Japanese troops put a tight siege on the Korean imperial palace and even launched a military drill in front of it.

In the circumstances, the Korean ministers ruled out the conclusion of the treaty at a meeting on the treaty held at the palace in the presence of the emperor on November 17.

Upon the news about the failed negotiations, Ito Hirobumi, a special envoy of the Japanese king, came to the palace and forced the Korean ministers to get together in a room and approve the treaty. As several ministers spoke out against the treaty, Ito overtly threatened them, telling his men to kill them if they insisted on their decision. In such a coercive way the Japanese unilaterally declared the treaty adopted. They went so far as to steal the seal of the Korean foreign minister and stamp it on the treaty in order to give it a semblance of legality.

The 1935 Harvard report described the treaty as illegal and based the description on the “coercive conclusion with the help of Japanese troops.”

A report submitted to the 15th UN International Law Commission in 1963 called the treaty an “outcome of coercion and threat” and pointed out that the treaty was “null and void.”

By dint of such an illegal document, Japan had seized the Korean sovereignty and subjected the Koreans to colonial slavery for more than four decades.

The damages, human, material and spiritual, inflicted by Japan on the Korean people during its military occupation of Korea are so irreparable that it can never be compensated.

Nevertheless, Japan has yet to recognize, apologize and compensate for its past wrongdoings, ridiculously claiming that its colonialization of Korea was “legally valid.”

Rather, it is bent on distorting historical facts.

A criminal would deny his or her wrongdoing because they are not ready to repent but intend to repeat it.

The more Japan is dead set on implementing its anti-DPRK policy while straining to deny its gloomy past, the more the Korean people are determined to settle the old scores.

Kim Su Jin