November 17 is the day of 115th year when the Japanese imperialists seized the sovereign rights of Korea by fabrication of “Ulsa five-point treaty” in a most heinous manner.

The “treaty”, also known as “Ulsa protectorate treaty”, is criminal papers misused for the lead-up to the grab at the diplomatic power of Korea by the Japanese imperialists, who in 1904 had provoked the Russo-Japanese War for gaining the exclusive control over Korea, and thus, militarily occupied our country.

The “treaty” is called “Ulsa five-point treaty” as it consists of five articles which stipulated, inter alia, that the Japanese foreign ministry supervises and controls the external relations of Korea and the Korean government would not conclude any treaty without the Japanese intervention.

The Japanese imperialists, who had long harbored a wild ambition to occupy Korea and run amuck for its realization, encircled the Royal Palace by huge troops including infantry, cavalry and artillery and coercively fabricated the treaty on November 17, 1905.

Ito Hirobumi, the chieftain of Japan’s aggression of Korea, tabled a draft treaty and forced signing of the draft. When it was strongly rejected by Emperor Kojong and the ministers, Ito interrogated the ministers of Korean government individually in a threatening and blackmailing manner, and in the end, took away the seal of the foreign minister, put the seal on the draft at his free will and made public the “signing.”

“Ulsa five-point treaty” which the Japanese imperialists had used as one of “legal grounds” for colonizing Korea was initially an illegal and invalid paper fabricated and made public solely for their own aim in flagrant violation of the demands and principles of international laws.

By abusing to their advantage this alleged “treaty” which had neither received prior approval of the Emperor, then ruler of Korea, nor his signature and royal seal, nor had a proper title, the Japanese imperialists usurped the diplomatic power for their external purpose and enforced a “supervisory” policy within Korea, thus reducing our country into a colony.

This being the case, the Japanese authorities are yet insisting on “legitimacy” of their occupation of Korea by putting up the illegal and unjust “Ulsa five-point treaty” even at this point – a century after the fabrication of the “treaty” and 75 years after the end of the colonial occupation and rule.

During the forty-plus-year-long colonial rule, the Japanese imperialists massacred more than one million Koreans in a cold-blooded way, cruelly violated 200,000 women as sexual slaves for the Japanese Imperial Army, and kidnapped and forced over 8.4 million into the slave labor and also drove them into the battlefields as bullet shields.

History has never seen such aggressors, cutthroats, vampires or plunderers as the Japanese imperialists who went to the length of attempting to eliminate the Korean language and even family names and given names of Koreans by enforcing the policy of annihilating the Korean nation, destroyed and plundered the precious cultural wealth and natural resources and committed the gravest crime against humanity by imposing the most barbarous and unexampled fascist colonial rule.

The criminal history of the Japanese imperialists who seized the sovereign rights of Korea and forced our people into the bitter fate of colonial slavery in the most heinous manner will never be erased whatever the passage of time.

We will never tolerate the gravest crime committed against the Korean people, and through generations to come, we will surely and by all means make Japan pay dearly for the grudges, the price of blood.

Ro Jong Su

Researcher of Institute for Studies of Japan

Ministry of Foreign Affairs Democratic People’s Republic of Korea