Pyongyang, March 19 (KCNA) -- More than a century has passed since Japan and the U.S. cooked up the "Katsura-Taft agreement" with the aim of invading Korea.

Japan and the U.S. had a sinister intention to occupy Korea and furthermore dominate the whole world from long ago, and their moves for aggression became undisguised from the mid-19th century.

Joining hands with each other from the shared interest in aggression to dominate Korea, the then Japanese Prime Minister Taro Katsura and U.S. Secretary of the Army Taft met in Japan in 1905 to conclude the above-said criminal "agreement" in the form of exchanging secret notes.

In what was called "Katsura-Taft agreement", Japan affirmed that the Philippines would be dominated by the U.S. and Japan had no plan to invade the Philippines, and the U.S. recognized Japan's "suzerainty" to Korea.

Japan and the U.S. sought to keep such their illegal crime buried into oblivion forever. However, the "agreement" was discovered at the U.S. Department of State archives in 20 years.

Japan had been more hell-bent on the scheme to colonialize Korea, after getting assurance for it from the U.S. through the "agreement".

Under the U.S. support and protection, Japan cooked up an illegal and invalid "Ulsa Five-point Treaty" soon after the fabrication of the "agreement", and then invented the "Jongmi Seven-point Treaty" to completely rob Korea of its right to administering its internal affairs.

In 1910, Japan also forged a brigandish "treaty" stipulating that the ruling power over Korea shall be handed over to the Japanese king on a complete and permanent basis and Korea shall be "annexed" to Japan.

Due to the illegal "Katsura-Taft agreement" which provided a crucial precondition for the occupation of Korea by the Japanese imperialists, the Korean people had to be subjected to all disgraces and sufferings as victims of the aggressors for a long time. -0-