The Democratic People's Republicof Korea (DPRK) on Thursday accused Japanese right-wingers of forcing a cover-up on wartime "comfort women" by pressing a Japanese TV company to edit a program on the issue.

The program -- "Wartime sexual abuse exposed to criticism" -- "was altered in the direction of covering up Japan's responsibility for the war," said a spokesman for the DPRK Measure Committee for Demanding Compensation to Comfort Women for the Japanese Army and the Victims of Forcible Drafting.

The Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun said the content of the program, a sequel to the program "How to try war" aired by NHK of Japan on Jan. 30, 2001, was grossly altered just before being broadcast under pressure from the then-congressman Shinzo Abe (nowacting secretary general of Japan's Liberal Democratic Party) and Shoichi Nakagawa (now minister of Economy, Trade and Industry).

"Japanese media institutions, which claim to stand for neutrality and impartiality of the press, are taking the lead in tampering with history and slandering the DPRK as faithful mouthpieces of right-wing forces, blinded by money-making," the DPRK spokesman said in a statement.

"Japanese right-wing forces and media are becoming so noisy in their smear campaign against the DPRK, persistently tampering with Japan's crime-woven past," said the spokesman, adding that "it is aimed at evading at any cost its responsibility to redeem the crimes committed by it against humanity in the past and create an atmosphere favorable for the realization of militarization."

"Japan's desperate efforts to deny and embellish its past crimes would only prompt the international community to dig more deeply into its crime-woven past and redouble the international community's efforts in demanding its settlement," the spokesman said.

Source: Xinhua