A letter, penned by North Korean Ambassador to the United Nations Pak Gil Yon and seen by the Xinhua news agency, said Japan posed a "substantial" threat to its neighbors in Northeast Asia.

"Japan's permanent membership of the UNSC cannot be tolerated as it contravenes the main mission of the United Nations, considering its past crimes against humanity, today's revival of its militarism and threats to its neighboring countries," said the letter.

Japan wants to join the elite Security Council, which groups China, the United States, France, Britain and Russia, arguing its hefty U.N. dues have earned it the right.

But North Korea said it was too soon to forget that Japan "had forcibly drafted and abducted 8.4 million, massacred 1 million and forced 200,000 women into sex slavery for the Japanese Army in World War II."

Even now, Japan "has not liquidated its past crimes, but is resurrecting militaristic hallucinations," the letter reportedly said.

The Japan Times Weekly: March 19, 2005
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