Japan's past crime disbanding Korean Army
Korean Revolution Museum exhibits the photocopy of the draft of the imperial edict handwritten by Ito Hirobumi. (Photo KCNA via Pyongyang Times)

By KCNA

In the last century, the Japanese imperialists made desperate efforts to turn Korea into their colony.

One of their crimes was the forced disbandment of the Korean army.

Before and after the fabrication of the "Ulsa Five-Point Treaty", the Japanese imperialists schemed to get rid of the Korean army. They disorganized its supreme command to abolish Emperor Kojong's right of military command and then reduced the regular troops of the Korean army by a large margin under the pretext of disarmament. After all, its 17 000 troops in 1904 was reduced to a half.

In 1907, their moves for eliminating the Korean army reached an extreme point.

After cooking up the "Jongmi Seven-Point Treaty", they grasped the judicial power and police authority and made a secret memorandum deciding the disbandment of the Korean army. Consecutively, they fabricated an imperial edict.

In October 1982, it was opened to the public by the Japanese newspaper Shukan Asahi that the handwriting on the draft of the imperial edict was not the Korean emperor's, but Hirobumi Ito's.

Like this, the Japanese imperialists misled the public opinion by fabricating even the imperial edict with abandon.

Under this "edict", five battalions of the royal guards and cavalry and artillery in the capital city and eight battalions in localities were disbanded at twice.

Meanwhile, the Japanese imperialists mercilessly suppressed the uprising of the Korean soldiers standing against the forcible disbandment.

The Korean people will never pass over the past crimes committed by Japan to cruelly trample down their development and interests.

(KCNA - December 11, 2019)