North Korea blasts Japan for wartime past

July 21 (UPI) -- North Korea verbally attacked Japan on state propaganda Sunday, accusing Tokyo for not atoning for its wartime past.

Pyongyang propaganda service Maeari said Sunday "even if the entire island of Japan was sold as compensation" for past misdeeds it would not be enough to offset the "eternal sins" of the world's third-largest economy.

Japan occupied the Korean Peninsula from 1910 to 1945. Colonialism eventually led to the mass recruitment of Korean forced laborers during wartime and the mobilization of comfort women forced to serve in wartime brothels across Asia.

On Sunday Maeari also referred to an ongoing dispute between Seoul and Tokyo.

"It is very righteous for the South Korean Supreme Court to order the payment of Japanese reparations to Japanese occupation-era forced labor victims," Pyongyang said.

The statement also said there is "no end" to the list of Japanese crimes against humanity, including the issue of "Japanese military sex slavery, forced labor victims and massacres."

North Korea also claimed Japan has refused to apologize for the past, and that Japanese authorities were placing pressure on South Korea.

On July 1, Japan decided to place export restrictions on key chemicals used to make tech products in the South,, including, smartphones, flat-screen TVs and semiconductors.

The issue of the trade restrictions has not been resolved, and came after Japan claimed trust had been damaged because of South Korea's support for wartime labor compensation.

North Korea's condemnation of Japan comes at a time when the Kim Jong Un regime is holding local people's assembly elections.

North Korea's KCNA reported late Sunday, local time, 99.98 percent of eligible citizens had voted in the regional elections.

KCNA said those who could not vote were overseas or "working out at sea."

Pyongyang also said mobile voting boxes were made available for citizens unable to make it to voting stations.