FM Spokesman Urges Japan to Stop Suppression of Chongryon

The Japanese authorities mobilized dozens of the Osaka Prefectural riot police force on Mar. 23 to search six places including the Osaka Prefectural Association of Koreans in Commerce in Japan, shops run by Koreans and their dwelling houses on the initiative of the public safety bereau of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police. On top of this, the Japanese authorities retracted the measure to exempt the Central Hall, the hall of Tokyo Metropolitan headquarters and the press hall of the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan (Chongryon) from municipal property tax and impounded them. And they intensified financial pressure to disorganize Chongryon, scheming to totally withdraw the measure for exempting all facilities related to Chongryon across the country from municipal property tax of local autonomous bodies under the pretext of "strict application of the existing law".

A spokesman for the DPRK Foreign Ministry in a statement on March 28 warned that the DPRK will certainly take full stock of the suppression of Chongryon and Korean residents in Japan that has systematically been perpetrated under the direct manipulation of the Japanese government and strongly counter it. The Japanese government is legally and morally obliged to ensure Chongryon’s activities and protect the living of Koreans in Japan from the historical viewpoint, the spokesman said.

The statement continued as follows.

The Japanese prime minister repeatedly clarified his stand to friendly treat the Koreans in Japan so as not to discriminate them when adopting the DPRK-Japan Pyongyang Declaration and on other occasions. The Japanese government, too, reaffirmed this at the talks on the normalization of relations between the DPRK and Japan held in Beijing early in February.

However, Japan, a so-called constitutional state, perpetrated fascist suppression of Chongryon and Korean residents in Japan in a gangster-like way by setting state power in motion while deliberately linking the already settled "abduction issue" to Chongryon. It also tries to put pressure upon the DPRK. This is really mean and ridiculous act. Chongryon is a legitimate overseas Koreans' organization of the DPRK which defends all the democratic national rights of Koreans in Japan and it plays the role of a diplomatic mission which promotes friendship with the Japanese people, given that there is no diplomatic relations between the two countries.

The suppression of such dignified organization and Koreans in Japan cannot be construed otherwise than a wanton violation of the DPRK-Japan Pyongyang Declaration and an unpardonable infringement upon the sovereignty of the DPRK. The Japanese authorities can never evade their responsibility for the serious consequences to be entailed by their sinister acts.

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