North Korea argued formally Friday that Japan should be held accountable for "nullifying" a joint declaration issued two decades earlier in a bid to improve bilateral ties, according to Pyongyang's state media Friday.

Song Il-ho, ambassador of the North's foreign ministry, directed the criticism against Japan in a statement carried by the country's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the DPRK-Japan Pyongyang Declaration signed on Sept. 17, 2002, by late leader Kim Jong-il and then Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. DPRK stands for the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

"Two decades have passed since the publication of the declaration, but Japan has only rendered it null and void and pushed the bilateral ties to the lowest ebb of confrontation through a series of all sorts of sanctions measures with an aim to strip the DPRK of its rights to independence and development," Song said in the English-language statement. "How the bilateral ties will turn out entirely depends on the attitude of the Japanese government." (Yonhap)