North Korea denounces Japan's Shinzo Abe for Pearl Harbor visit

SEOUL, Dec. 21 (UPI) -- North Korea condemned Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for his plans to attend a ceremony next week in remembrance of the victims of the Pearl Harbor attack, calling the act an "ugly peace charade."

Pyongyang's Workers' Party newspaper Rodong Sinmun said Thursday, local time, Abe was infringing on the grounds of the war victims by making the visit.

"By visiting Pearl Harbor Abe plans to carry the United States on [Japan's] back and take it as an important opportunity to realize its ambition of reinvading the Asia-Pacific region and its ambition of domination," the North Korean statement read.

The newspaper also stated, "The ruling party in Japan plans to not even issue a single word of apology to the United States for the Pearl Harbor incident," because if an apology is issued Tokyo would then have to apologize for all crimes against humanity, including the "Pacific War," the invasion of China and the colonization of the Korean peninsula.

Abe is to spend two days in Hawaii starting Dec. 26.

The Japanese prime minister is to meet with U.S. President Barack Obama in a ceremony that is to emphasize the "power of reconciliation," according to Kyodo news agency.

Daniel Kritenbrink, senior director for Asian affairs at the National Security Council said the event would be "a demonstration of the strength of the [U.S.-Japan] alliance," and "a powerful demonstration of how the two countries can overcome a very painful history to become the closest of allies and friends."

Abe is "approaching this event from a similar perspective" as Washington, the U.S. official also said.

In May Obama made a historic visit to Hiroshima where the United States dropped an atomic bomb in 1945.