SEOUL — North Korea’s state media has slammed Japan for its recent trade restrictions against Seoul over wartime slavery disputes, accusing Tokyo of “destroying the trend of peace” on the Korean peninsula. North Korea has repeatedly warned the South to stop “meddling” in nuclear talks between Pyongyang and Washington, but sided with Seoul for its trade row with Tokyo. Tensions escalated Friday as a South Korean man in his 70s died after setting himself on fire outside the Japanese embassy in Seoul, and Japanese foreign minister summoned the South Korean ambassador in Tokyo over the dispute. South Korea and Japan are both U.S. allies and democracies, but relations between the two have long been strained over issues related to Tokyo’s brutal 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean peninsula. ADVERTISEMENTU.S. President Donald Trump, who had a historic, impromptu stop on North Korean soil last month, said he remained at the ready to help South Korea and Japan solve their dispute.

Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer July 20, 2019 03:45 UTC