Archive for the ‘Japan’ Category

Orphan Information: Pyongyang Bio-Technical Institute

Tuesday, August 23rd, 2016

I have a lot of information laying around that I intend to use in publications, but sometimes that information doesn’t make it out the door where it can do other researchers any good. To help fix this I have put together a three-part “Orphan Information” series to remedy the problem.

This is part 1, and it features additional information on the Pyongyang Bio-technical Institute run by Korean People’s Army Unit 810 which was the subject of an article in 38 North by Melissa Hanham in July 2015. The information below helps to clarify the history of the facility and offers more hints as to its uses.

The facility has gone by two previous names in North Korea (of which I am aware): First it was known as the Patriotic Complex Microbial Center, then it was changed to the Vitamin C Factory at the Pyongyang Biotechnology Center. The current name is probably the third (in English).

Patriotic Complex Microbial Center (애국복합미생물센터) (Date Range: June 1997 – December 2010 [appx])

Aeguk-microbioal-2010-10-6

Pictured Above (Google Earth): Patriotic Complex Microbial Center (2010-10-6)

I have uploaded to YouTube two videos of the facility that were broadcast on North Korean Television.

This video was broadcast on 2010-6-8:

This video was broadcast on 2010-12-29:

I have not had either video translated, so if you speak Korean and think there is anything interesting in these videos, please let me know.

The NTI web page has the most complete description of the facility of which I am aware:

The Aeguk Compound Microbe Center was founded in June 1997 pursuant to Kim Jong Il’s orders for the creation of microbial fertilizers suitable for North Korea’s geographical conditions. Any connections to the North Korean program are unclear, but the center was built with assistance from Choch’ongnyŏn (Chosen Soren), the pro-North Korea General Association of Korean Residents in Japan. Almost all facilities with the designation “Aeguk (애국)” have been established with assistance from overseas pro-North Korean residents. The facility was expanded in April 1999 when the Compound Microbe Technical Research Station was established. The Aeguk Compound Microbe Center produces microbial stock (원균) in a liquid solution, and supplies the stock to compound microbial fertilizer factories throughout the country, which in turn produce microbial-based fertilizer supplements. According to the Pyongyang Times, the Aeguk Compound Microbe Center also assists farms in applying compound fertilizer produced at these factories. There are reportedly over 120 compound microbial fertilizer factories (복합미생물비료공장) in North Korea including the following:

  • Chŏngju Aeguk Compound Microbial Fertilizer Factory (정주애국복합미생물비료공장): Chŏngju (정주시), North P’yŏng’an Province (평안남도)
  • Hamhŭng Aeguk Compound Microbial Fertilizer Factory (합흥애국복합미생물비료공장): Hamhŭng (함훙시), South Hamgyŏng Province (함경남도)
  • Hamju Aeguk Compound Microbial Fertilizer Factory (함주애국복합미생물비료공장): Hamju-kun (함주군), South Hamgyŏng Province (함경남도)
  • Kae’p’ung Compound Microbial Fertilizer Factory (개풍애국복합미생물비료공장): Kae’p’ung-kun (개풍군), Kaesŏng (개성시)
  • Kwaksan Aeguk Compound Microbial Fertilizer Factory (곽산애국복합미생물비료공장): Kwaksan-kun (곽산국), North P’yong’an Province (평안북도)
  • P’anmun Aeguk Compound Microbial Fertilizer Factory (판문애국복합미생물비료공장): P’anmun-kun (판문군), Kaesŏng (개성시)
  • Man’gyŏngdae Aeguk Compound Microbial Fertilizer Factory (만경대애국복합미생물비료공장): Man’gyŏngdae-kuyŏk (만경대구역), Pyongyang (평양시)

As of 2000, the chief of the Aeguk Compound Microbe Center was Kim Ung Ho, who was also chairman of the DPRK Invention Committee.

Vitamin C Factory (비타민C공장)

In early 2011 construction began around the Patriotic Complex Microbial Center. When construction was completed, North Korea announced the Vitamin C Factory.

Vitamin-C-2013-12-1

Pictured Above (Google Earth: 2013-12-1): “Vitamin C Factory”

As you can see from comparing the images of the Patriotic Factory and the Vitamin C Factory, there was a substantial amount of work completed; however, the original building was not torn down, though its exterior (and probably interior) have been altered.

KCNA noted that the plant opened on August 9:

Pyongyang, August 9 (KCNA) — The Vitamin C Factory has been commenced with due ceremony on Friday. It was built on the bank of the River Taedong in Pyongyang.

The vitamin C producing base has the latest production processes that use bioengineering methods.

The factory helps make another achievement in carrying out the behests of leader Kim Jong Il, who worked heart and soul to improve the standard of people’s living, and will greatly contributing to promoting health of the people.

Present at the ceremony were Pak Pong Ju, Choe Thae Bok and officials concerned, officials of different units, builders, youth shock brigade members and officials and employees of the factory.

Pak Sun Chol, general director of the Korean Taeyang General Company, made an address.

At the end of the ceremony the participants went round the factory.

Here is the KCNA video that accompanied the story above:

KCTV evening news featured the opening of the plant on 2013-8-11 (start at the 3:03 mark) to view:

On August 16, 2013 construction of the factory was touted as a successful fulfillment of Kim Jong-un’s new year address:

Pyongyang, August 16 (KCNA) — Marshal Kim Jong Un, in the 2013 New Year Address, set the building of a strong economy as a key issue in accomplishing the cause of building a thriving socialist nation.

In response to his New Year Address, the people in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea have made fresh upsurge in all economic sectors in the spirit of the “Masikryong Speed”.

Readjustment of the West Sea Barrage-Sinchon-Kangryong and Ongjin waterways was finished in ten days, while more than 1,000 hectares of fruit field has come into being in Pukchong County, South Hamgyong Province.

The Pyongyang Essential Foodstuff Factory and the Phyongsong Synthetic Leather Factory have become streamlined and the Vitamin C Factory and the Turf Research Center of the State Academy of Science were newly built on a modern basis.

On August 20, 2013, KCNA for the first time published the name of the “Pyongyang Biotechnology Center” (평양생물기술연구원) as the name of the complex of which the Vitamin C Factory was a component:

Pyongyang Biotechnology Center

Pyongyang, August 20 (KCNA) — The Vitamin C Factory was modernly built at the Pyongyang Biotechnology Center located on the bank of the River Taedong.

With the operation of the factory, the center has developed into a comprehensive microbe fermentation researcher base and producer vital to developing agriculture, light industry and public health.

The center has turned out agrochemicals, anti-oxidation drinks EM-X, microbe fermentation accelerants, water purifier, digestive, etc.

All of those products are highly appreciated at home and abroad.

The center also has a biotechnology institute, compound microbiological fertilizer factory and experimental factory.

Neither the “Vitamin C Factory” nor the “Pyongyang Biotechnology Center” are ever mentioned again in the English-language state media.

The Korean name of the “Pyongyang Biotechnology Center” (평양생물기술연구원) appears in this Naenara article dated 2015-6-24.

Finally, the facility re-branded in the English-language state media when Kim Jong-un visits the “Bio-Technical Institute Under KPA Unit 810” in July 2015. The Korean name is virtually unchanged, though “under KPA Unit 810 is added”: 조선인민군 제810군부대산하 평양생물기술연구원

And now you know….the rest of the story.

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Kim Jong-un’s mother’s grave (Ko Yong-hui)

Friday, April 8th, 2016

I reported this in Radio Free Asia last week….

It has never been announced in the North Korean media, but Kim Jong-un has “quietly” built a grave for his mother, Ko Yong-hui, on Mt. Taesong.

Ko-grave-2016-4-8

Pictured above (Google Earth): The grave of Kim Jong-un’s mother, Ko Yong-hui.

The site where the grave was built was cleared of a few small buildings by May 2012 (Kim Jong-il died in December 2011).  Construction appears to have been completed by October 2012.

Although the grave is on Mt. Taesong, it does not appear to be a revolutionary site. It is not featured on a nearby map of revolutionary sites on Mt. Taesong, and North Koreans are not being brought to it by the bus load (very little traffic in fact). Kim jong-un may have visited the grave unofficially, but never as a public ritual. The only foreigner I have spoken to who has visited the site saw only one guard on duty. So maybe someday years from now it is intended to be a revolutionary site, but not for now.

Back in 2010, Michael Madden posted this picture of Ms. Ko’s birthplace in Osaka, Japan. I was able to locate it on Google Earth at these coordinates:  34.663147°, 135.531080°

Ko-birthplace

Ko’s father (Kim Jong-un’s maternal grandfather) was buried on Jeju-do in South Korea, but the family had his grave moved to an undisclosed location to prevent it from attracting crowds. It is highly unlikely that Kim Jong-un will ever visit this grave.

UPDATE: A reader sent in this very helpful information:

Ko’s father is not buried on Jeju-Do! This grave is a so-called “가묘”, an “empty or fake grave”. The reason for erecting a “가묘” was to be able to perform the (in Korean culture) important ancestor rites, since they are actually without any remains of the deceased since their whereabouts are mostly unknown. Especially after the Korean War, many “가묘” were erected in Korea, because many family members just disappeared …

Here is more information about the “fake” tomb of Kim Jong Un’s grandfather in Jeju-Do: http://m.blog.daum.net/_blog/_m/articleView.do?blogid=0Li0k&articleno=7763730

Under the photo it is written “가묘” (for the empty/fake tomb)

On the tombstone you may read the following sentence:  “사정에따라 허총을 만들다” (because of circumstances an empty/fake tomb was made)

Here they use 허총, this word has the same meaning as 가묘.

Further the following is written on the tombstone:

“His name was 고경택 (Ko Kyong-thaek)

He was born in 1913, in 1929  he moved to Japan and he died in 1999.

The last two lines mention the name of his father (Ko Yong-ok) and his six sons: Ko Yong Hun, Bong Hun, In Hun, Kwang Hun, Chol Hun and Sang Hun.

His daughters (among them obviously Ko Yong Hui) are not mentioned.

Those 가묘/허총 (fake tombs) can also be seen in North Korea!

The Korean wiki-page about the Patriotic Martyrers Cemetery in Pyongyang includes the following information:

“대한민국에서 사망한 김삼룡, 김달삼, 최일천, 조봉암, 김종태, 최영도, 최백근, 이현상 등은 가묘 형태로 묘소가 마련되어 있다.”

 Roughly: (all the mentioned martyrs) died in South Korea, that is why a 가묘 had to be set up …
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Japan bans reentry of Chongryon leadership after DPRK visit

Tuesday, March 15th, 2016

According to the Donga Ilbo:

In response to North Korea’s nuclear tests and long-range missile firing early this year, the Japanese government sharply increased the number of people banned from reentry into Japan after visiting North Korea to 22 people including the chairman and vice chairman of the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan (Chongryon).

According to Tokyo Shimbun and Kyodo News on Monday, people banned from reentry include 17 people from Chongryon, such as Chairman Heo Jong-man, Vice Chairman Nam Seung-woo, and those in Chosun University run by Chongryon. The advisor and five other members of the Science and Technology Association under Chongryon will also be banned. The Japanese government has also included scientists in the banned list aimed at blocking the transfer of nuclear and missile technology.

Japan had banned reentry of eight Chongryon leadership including Chairman Heo since 2006, but the sanctions were lifted in May 2014 at an agreement made in Stockholm when North Korea promised reexamination of kidnapped Japanese victims. Helped by the lift, Chongryon executives were able to visit North Korea in September that year in eight years to meet Kim Young Nam, North Korean Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly, among others.

When sanctions resume, however, Chongryon leadership cannot participate the seventh Labor Party convention to be held for the first time in 36 years in early May. North Korea is expected to strongly protest against the recent sanction that includes Heo, who serves as its ambassador in Japan, and others in Chongryon.

In response to little progress on reexamination of kidnapped victims last year, the Japanese government has tightened pressure on the federation by arresting Heo’s second son Heo Jeong for allegedly importing pine mushroom from North Korea illegally. The North had harshly criticized Japan calling it a hostile provocative act.

Read the full story here:
Japan bans reentry of Chongryon leadership after N. Korea visit
Donga Ilbo
2016-3-15

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Chongryon chief’s son arrested over suspected DPRK mushroom imports

Tuesday, May 12th, 2015

UPDATE 1 (2015-7-17): Chongryon chief’s son pleads not guilty. According to Kyodo:

One of two men linked to the pro-Pyongyang group Chongryon have pleaded not guilty to illegally importing mushrooms from North Korea.

Ho Jong Do, a son of Ho Jong Man, who heads the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan (Chongryon), said the charges were totally wrong as their trial opened Thursday in the Kyoto District Court.

The other defendant, Kim Yong Jok, president of a Tokyo-based company affiliated with Chongryon, pleaded guilty.

The men imported about 3,000 kg of matsutake mushrooms produced in North Korea, worth around ¥7.6 million, via China in September 2010, prosecutors said.

Japan has banned imports from North Korea as part of sanctions against the country over its nuclear arms and missile development programs.

Japanese investigators have alleged North Korea aimed to obtain foreign currency by exporting the highly sought-after mushrooms.

ORIGINAL POST (2015-5-12): According to the Kyodo:

Police on Tuesday arrested three men, including the son of the head of the pro-Pyongyang group Chongryon, on suspicion of illegally importing a shipment of matsutake mushrooms from North Korea.

Masamichi Kyo, 50, whose father is Chongryon chief Ho Jong Man, runs a Tokyo-based company affiliated with the organization.

The investigation — carried out by Kyoto police and three other prefectural police forces — involved raids in March on sites related to Chongryon, also known as the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan.

The group has functioned for decades as North Korea’s de facto embassy in Japan in the absence of diplomatic ties between Tokyo and Pyongyang.

Kyo’s arrest could further complicate bilateral ties, given that the initial raid prompted North Korea to lash out, with Pyongyang declaring that talks with Japan would now be “difficult” to achieve.

Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida said Tuesday that police are “conducting their investigations based on law and evidence.”

A source close to Chongryon said Kyo is widely regarded as Ho’s bookkeeper, although he kept a low profile at Chongryon and only served in a senior post at one of the group’s local chapters in Tokyo.

The two other individuals arrested were Kim Yong Jak, 70, the president of the company Kyo works for, and Kazuhide Yamanaka, 63, a senior official at a related company.

The three are suspected of conspiring with two other men on Sept. 27, 2010, to import illegally via China some 1,800 kg of matsutake mushrooms from North Korea. The shipment was worth around ¥4.5 million.

“This is a false accusation,” Kyo said as he was escorted by investigators out of his condominium following his arrest Tuesday morning.

Officers quoted him as saying, “I will not cooperate as this is an unjustified arrest.”

The police suspect the mushroom shipment was part of North Korea’s bid to acquire hard currency, as Japan has maintained an embargo on imports from North Korea since October 2006. The measure is part of a package of sanctions by Tokyo on Pyongyang for its missile and nuclear tests.

The focus of the investigation is whether Kyo acted on the orders of the North Korean government.

Chongryon sources say Kyo served as an executive of the association’s Adachi branch, but he has not worked at the headquarters in Chiyoda Ward and was not a high-profile activist for the group.

That is why investigative sources say surveillance was “lax” on him, and Kyo was able to visit North Korea as his father’s proxy. A re-entry ban on Ho meant he stayed in Japan while his son traveled.

When the economic sanctions preventing Ho’s re-entry were partially lifted and Ho was able to visit North Korea last September, his wife and Kyo were already in Pyongyang when he arrived, investigative sources say.

Because investigators believe the mushroom deal was part of North Korea’s measures to secure foreign currency, they are now examining the transfer of funds between Chongryon and Pyongyang.

At around 6:40 a.m. Tuesday, about a dozen investigators carrying cardboard boxes entered Kyo’s condo in Adachi Ward.

About 30 minutes later, Kyo emerged, wearing a mask and a cap, looking down and surrounded by investigators.
Separately, Japan and North Korea are at loggerheads over stalled bilateral talks on Pyongyang’s abductions of Japanese nationals in the 1970s and 1980s.

Read the full story here:
Chongryon chief’s son arrested over suspected N. Korea mushroom imports
Kyodo
2015-5-12

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Japanese police raid home of Chongryun chairman

Thursday, March 26th, 2015

UPDATE 1 (2015-5-29): Office 39 has been connected to the Japanese investigation. According to the Daily NK:

An investigation launched by Japanese police has revealed that Office 39, a special department charged with raising funds for Kim Jong Un’s use, is involved in illegal operation exporting pine mushrooms to Japan, Yomiuri Shimbun, a Japanese daily, reported on May 27th.

During a police raid on the home Huh Jong Do, the son of the head of the pro-North General Association of Korean Residents in Japan [Chongryon], the authorities uncovered documents revealing correspondence between the group and Office 39, revealing that North Korea has been exporting pine mushrooms to Japan in conjunction with Chosun Specialty Sales, an affiliate of Chongryon.

An official with the investigation said it was the first time documents explicitly stating “Office 39” have come to light, leading police to push ahead with the investigation and assert the shadowy agency’s direct involvement in the illicit operation.

Both Huh and Kim Yong Jak, head of Chosun Specialty Sales, were arrested on May 12th for violating laws administration of foreign currency. Police investigations revealed that these two men had imported approximately 1,800 kg of pine mushrooms from North Korea in September of 2010–a clear violation of Japan’s ban on trading with North Korea, implemented after North Korea’s second nuclear test in 2009.

Meanwhile, Washington D.C.-based Voice of America, quoting Japanese daily Sankei Shimbun, that Office 39, Huh, and Chosun Specialty Sales were all involved in the pine mushroom smuggling ring, dividing the profits among the involved parties.

ORIGINAL POST (2015-3-26): According to the Japan Times:

The head of the pro-Pyongyang General Association of Korean Residents in Japan, or Chongryon, had his home searched by police on Thursday, and two South Korean men were arrested on suspicion of illegally importing matsutake mushrooms from North Korea.

Raids took place at six locations, including the Tokyo home of Ho Jong Man, chairman of Chongryon, a body which has functioned as a de facto North Korean embassy for many decades in the absence of diplomatic ties between Tokyo and Pyongyang.

Observers said the raid on the chairman’s home could affect stalled bilateral talks on Pyongyang’s abductions of Japanese nationals in the 1970s and 1980s.

Police arrested Lee Tong-chol, 61, president of a Tokyo-based trading house, and Yoshihiko Kin, 42, an employee of the company. They are suspected of illegally importing about 1,200 kg of matsutake mushrooms worth around ¥3 million via China in September 2010.

The mushrooms are believed to have been sold in Japan, mislabeled as Chinese-grown produce.

Japan has banned imports from North Korea since October 2006 as part of economic sanctions imposed in response to Pyongyang’s missile and nuclear programs.

Both suspects are residents of Japan, and both denied the allegation. Investigators quoted Lee as saying he does not understand why he should be arrested, while Kin denied all knowledge of the matter.

Police are investigating the relationship between the suspects and Ho, who is a member of North Korea’s top legislature.

After the early morning raid on his home in Tokyo’s Suginami Ward, Ho told reporters angrily he does not even know the name of the trading company.

“The investigation is done unlawfully and this would lead to serious problems in the relationship” between North Korea and Japan, he said.

“This is political suppression against the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan,” he said.

Touching on the ongoing investigation into the fate of Japanese citizens abducted by North Korea, Ho said the Japanese authority is making things worse, interfering with the investigation by deliberately worsening relations with North Korea.

Meanwhile, a senior police investigator said authorities suspect a link between the illegal trade and Chongryon, and that they will do everything they can to investigate.

To that end, police have so far searched more than 10 locations, including the trading house and the homes of Lee and of Ho’s son last May.

The locations searched Thursday include the Tokyo home of the pro-Pyongyang group’s vice chairman.

Read the full story here:
Police search home of Chongryon leader over suspected North Korea mushroom shipment
Japan Times
2015-3-26

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Japan and DPRK announce agreement on santions/abductions

Friday, May 30th, 2014

Here is the official statement published by KCNA (and KCNA Watch):

Substance of Agreement at DPRK-Japan Inter-Governmental Talks

Pyongyang, May 30 (KCNA) — Substance of the agreement reached at the DPRK-Japan inter-governmental talks held in Stockholm, Sweden on May 26-28, 2014 is as follows:

Both sides had an in-depth discussion on the issues of settling the inglorious past, settling pending issues and normalizing the bilateral relations according to the DPRK-Japan Pyongyang Declaration.

The Japanese side requested the DPRK side to conduct a survey of all Japanese including the remains and graves of the Japanese who died in the territory of the DPRK before and after the year 1945 and the remaining Japanese, Japanese spouses, victims of abduction and missing Japanese.

The DPRK side appreciated the Japanese side’s recognition of the efforts made by the DPRK to settle the abduction issue in the past and expressed the willingness to conduct a comprehensive and full-scale survey for all the Japanese for the final settlement of all issues related to Japanese though there is its previous stand.

According to this, the Japanese side voiced its intent to finally lift the measures against the DPRK (sanctions) which it is slapping on its own at present. (The measures taken as regards resolutions of the UNSC are not included.)

The action measures to be taken by both sides are as follows:

Both sides decided to implement the following specific measures at an early date and have a close consultation to do so:

-Japanese side

First, the Japanese side re-clarified its will to settle its inglorious past, solve the pending issues and normalize the relations together with the DPRK side according to the DPRK-Japan Pyongyang Declaration and agreed to take a sincere approach towards building confidence between the two countries and settling issues of improving the bilateral relations.

Second, it agreed to lift restrictions on visits of persons, special measure of restrictions taken against the DPRK regarding money remittance and money carried by visitors and the embargo on the entry of the DPRK-flagged ships with a humanitarian mission into the Japanese ports once the DPRK side sets up a “special investigation committee” for the comprehensive survey and starts it.

Third, it highly appreciated the cooperation rendered by the DPRK side in realizing the visits to ancestral graves in the DPRK by bereaved families of Japan as regards the issue of the remains of Japanese and agreed to take necessary measures, furthering the consultation with the DPRK side in connection with the handling of the remains of Japanese and their graves left uncared in the territory of the DPRK and the visits to the ancestral graves.

Fourth, the Japanese side agreed to continue the survey of the Koreans who went missing in the past as requested by the DPRK side and take relevant steps through discussion with the DPRK side.

Fifth, it agreed to have a sincere discussion on the issue of the status of the Koreans in Japan according to the DPRK-Japan Pyongyang Declaration.

Sixth, in order to confirm issues arising in the comprehensive and full-scale survey, it agreed to take appropriate measures including the meeting with personnel concerned from the Japanese side and sharing of relevant information about the issues, raised by the DPRK side.

Seventh, it agreed to examine humanitarian aid to the DPRK at an appropriate time from a humanitarian stand.

-DPRK side

First, the DPRK side agreed to conduct a comprehensive and full-scale survey of all Japanese including the remains and graves of those who died in the territory of the DPRK before and after the year 1945, remaining Japanese, Japanese spouses, victims of abduction and missing Japanese.

Second, it agreed to conduct a simultaneous survey of all matters raised, not just giving priority to some of them.

Third, it agreed to set up the “special investigation committee” invested with special mandate (mandate to survey all organs) with a view to conducting specific and in-depth survey of all matters.

Fourth, it agreed to inform the Japanese side of the survey and confirmation of Japanese when necessary including the issues of the remains of Japanese and their graves, remaining Japanese and Japanese spouses. It agreed to have an appropriate discussion with the Japanese side on the issue of handling the remains unearthed in the course of work and the issue of course of action concerning the survivors including their repatriation.

Fifth, as for the abduction issue it agreed to inform the Japanese side of the survey of the abductees and missing Japanese when necessary. When survivors are found in the course of survey, it agreed to inform the Japanese side of it and discuss the issue of the course of action and take measures in the direction of sending them back to Japan.

Sixth, in order to ensure the confirmation of the issues raised by the Japanese side as the survey progresses, it agreed to take appropriate measures for stay in the DPRK of the Japanese personnel concerned and meet with persons concerned and visits to the places concerned while sharing relevant information with the Japanese side.

Seventh, it agreed to make a prompt survey, further consultation of issues arising in this course in various forms and methods and take appropriate measures.

Unverified reports claim there are some minor discrepancies between the Japanese and Korean understandings of the statements. Reportedly the Japanese side has agreed to remove the restrictions at a point of time when the “special investigation committee” has been established and investigations have been initiated, not simply when a committee was established. Secondly the Mangyongbong-92 will remain unauthorized to enter Japan. Finally, the Japanese will do nothing to intervene in the sale of the Chongryun (Shosen Soren) headquarters.

Here is additional coverage:

1. 38 North

2. Yonhap

3. The Diplomat

4. Associated Press

5. Stephan Haggard

6. Japan Times

7. NK News

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Chongryun education subsidies

Thursday, October 31st, 2013

 

Pictured above (Google Earth): (L) The Chongryon headquarters building in Tokyo. (R) The Chongryon’s Korea University

UPDATE 8 (2013-10-31): According to the Choson Ilbo, Yokohama has cut Chongryon education subsidies:

The Japanese city of Yokohama has decided to stop annual subsidies to pro-North Korean schools this year, citing North Korea’s nuclear test and other provocations, the Tokyo Shimbun daily reported Wednesday.

The schools are affiliated with the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan or Chongryon, a Pyongyang mouthpiece.

The education committee in Yokohama informed three of the Chongryon schools in the city last week that they would not be receiving the subsidy of 2.5 million yen set aside in this year’s budget.

They include two primary and one secondary school.

Yokohama Mayor Fumiko Hayashi said she is halting the subsidies as long as the issues of “North Korea’s nuclear weapons development and abduction of Japanese citizens remain unresolved.”

Earlier in February, the Japanese government cut Chongryon schools out of federal subsidies. Seven regional governments, including Saitama and Hiroshima, have followed suit.

Read the full story here:
Yokohama Stops Subsidies for Chongryon Schools
Choson Ilbo
2013-10-31

UPDATE 7 (2013-6-15): The Economist follows up with a story on the state of the Chongryun schools in Japan:

Japan’s government excluded the schools from a scheme to waive tuition fees in other schools two years ago. Shinzo Abe, the prime minister, is now focusing on public funding. Tokyo has led the way, ending its 6m yen ($63,000) annual subsidy to this Korean high school. Local authorities around Japan are following suit. “We’ll survive, but many won’t,” laments the headmaster, Shin Gil-ung.

The funding assault is part of what may be the end-game in a low-level war between Japanese conservatives and the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan, known as Chongryon. The organisation, which runs the schools, is North Korea’s de facto embassy and is suspected of involvement in the North’s bizarre abduction of over a dozen Japanese citizens in the 1970s and 1980s. The Japanese want the surviving citizens returned. The North Koreans say they are all dead.

The schools and the community they serve are in deep trouble anyway. Thousands of Koreans are abandoning their ethnic identities to take Japanese citizenship. Enrolment at Mr Shin’s school has fallen to 600 students from a high of 2,300 when he attended in the late 1960s. Parents pay for 80% of the institution’s costs; cash from North Korea, once a lifeline, has dried up.

UPDATE 6 (2011-10-24): According to the Daily NK:

The network of schools in Japan operated by the General Association of North Korean Residents in Japan, or Chongryon, saw the overall scale of its government funding shrink by 27% in the year 2009-2010, according to a report today from Sankei Shimbun.

Documents reveal that in 2009, ‘Chosun Schools’ received 549.73 million Yen ($7.2 million) in support, but by 2010 this had shrunk by 147.29 million Yen ($1.9 million) to 424.3 million Yen ($5.5 million).

Chosun Schools have courted controversy in recent times with assertions that have angered the Japanese authorities, in particular stating in history textbooks that “The Japanese authorities are emphasizing the abductees issue to cultivate anti-Chosun discord,” but also by calling the 1987 Korean Air disaster a fabrication.

The greatest reductions in funding were felt in four places; Tokyo, Osaka, Saitama and Fukuoka. Two, Tokyo and Saitama, gave no funding at all during 2010, with Osaka authorities explaining their choice in terms of cutting links with Chongryon as an organization which places portraits of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il on the walls of classrooms.

Elsewhere, consistently falling student numbers have also reduced the applicability of central funding for the schools.

UPDATE 5 (2011-6-3): The Chongryun schools seem to have corrected a number of historical points to please the Japanese.  According to the Choson Ilbo:

Pro-North Korean high schools in Japan changed textbook entries about North Korea’s kidnapping of Japanese nationals and the bombing of Korean Air passenger plane in 1987 to receive local government funding, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported Thursday.

Kanagawa Prefecture on Wednesday said pro-Pyongyang high schools in the prefecture removed from their modern history textbook the sentence “Japan exaggerated the kidnap issue,” and the entry claiming South Korea “fabricated” the bombing was amended to the bombing “occurred.”

The textbook is used in 10 pro-North Korean high schools in Japan. Kanagawa Prefecture added the modified version of the textbook was checked during a survey of high schools as part of a national tuition fee waiver program at the end of May.

Kanagawa Governor Yuji Kuroiwa said on Thursday, “We agreed to provide 63 million yen of funding to the schools as they promised to use the supplementary book that says North Korea ‘officially admitted’ the kidnapping, and reflect this when the textbook is revised in 2013. Whether we will continue to provide funding after next year depends on the teaching in these schools.”

Kanagawa Prefecture withheld financial assistance to five pro-Pyongyang primary, middle and high schools in the prefecture last year, and demanded modification of history textbooks and transparent management of schools.

Shin Kil-woong, who leads a group of head teachers at high schools run by the pro-Pyongyang General Association of Koreans in Japan or Chongryon, said, “We decided to remove the parts on the kidnapping issue to seek understanding from Japanese people.”

UPDATE 4 (2011-3-8): Congryun education subsidies in Japan appear to be on the wane again. According to Kyodo:

Students of a pro-Pyongyang high school in Tokyo called on the government Sunday to include their school in the national tuition waiver program.

The Democratic Party of Japan-led government had planned for the program to cover pro-Pyongyang schools by the end of the current fiscal year through March, but Prime Minister Naoto Kan suspended procedures to expand the program in the wake of North Korea’s shelling of a South Korean island in November.

Pro-Pyongyang schools have close ties with the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan (Chongryon), which serves as the de facto government mission for North Korea in Japan because of the absence of diplomatic relations.

“We would like to study with the same rights as Japanese high school students,” said Pak Su Gi, 18, in a speech addressed to Kan at a graduation ceremony at the pro-Pyongyang school in Tokyo’s Kita Ward.

The students of the school have been collecting signatures for a petition and held a march in the past year.

“We feel frustrated because our voices have not reached the government,” said Om Ri Hwa, another 18-year-old graduate of the Tokyo school.

The government has since last April waived tuition fees for students attending public high schools in line with the ruling party’s pledge in the August 2009 general election.

UPDATE 3 (2011-2-5): Chongryon schools’ history spin hurt tuition waiver bid. According to the Japan Times:

Flipping through a copy of a recently obtained Korean history textbook used in pro-Pyongyang junior high schools in Japan, journalist Ryo Hagiwara points his finger to a section describing how North Korea’s founding father, Kim Il Sung, and his Korean People’s Revolutionary Army defeated the Japanese occupation forces in 1945 and drove them off the Korean Peninsula.

“Well, this reads as if Kim and his army single-handedly liberated the North, but this is not true. It’s a known historical fact that Kim was an officer of the Soviet army’s 88th Brigade at the time,” Hagiwara said.

According to outside historians, the KPRA was a North Korean propaganda term for what was actually the Second Army Corps of a Chinese communist-led force that Kim was a part of during the 1930s and early 1940s before he joined the Soviet army.

“It’s as if students are studying Kim’s biography, not real history,” Hagiwara said, explaining that out of the textbook’s 119 pages, 62 are dedicated to Kim Il Sung and his family.

The expert on North Korea is heading a group translating the textbook into Japanese to highlight its content for the Japanese public. He expects the group’s version to be published later this month.

Hagiwara is a proponent of abolishing all subsidies for these schools, which he claims are giving students distorted history lessons that glorify and instill loyalty to Kim Jong Il’s hermit regime, and have strong ties with an organization with direct links to the dictatorship — Chongryon, the Association of Korean Residents in Japan.

It appears his argument has been gaining ground in recent months following North Korea’s bombing of a South Korean island in November, which prompted the ruling Democratic Party of Japan to temporarily freeze procedures for including pro-Pyongyang schools in its high school tuition waiver program.

Under a law that took effect last April, students at public high schools are exempt from paying tuition. Private schools and other schools equivalent to high schools receive between ¥118,800 to ¥237,600 per student annually, depending on their household income.

Foreign schools and international schools are eligible for the tuition waiver program if they are considered equivalent to Japanese high schools after checks with their home countries, or if their curricula are accredited by international organizations.

But while the DPJ initially planned on including the pro-Pyongyang high schools, the increased tensions in the region in recent months have led Prime Minister Naoto Kan to apply the brakes.

Making things worse for these schools, the increased publicity has prompted several municipalities to review the annual grants they have been doling out to them for decades.

Reports from the education ministry and the National Association for the Rescue of Japanese Kidnapped by North Korea (NARKN) show that 27 prefectures have been handing out a total of around ¥800 million a year to pro-Pyongyang schools.

Based on the schools’ enrollment, they would get additional funding of around ¥200 million under the central government’s high school tuition waiver program.

According to the education ministry, 73 pro-Pyongyang schools with an estimated 8,300 students were operating in Japan as of 2009. Of these, 10 were high schools with around 1,800 students in total.

In late January, Osaka Prefecture decided against distributing the ¥200 million in subsidies it has budgeted for fiscal 2011 for the 10 pro-Pyongyang schools within its jurisdiction.

Osaka, which has been providing financial aid to pro-Pyongyang schools since 1974, cited the schools’ reluctance to respond to guidelines the prefecture had set under Gov. Toru Hashimoto as the reason behind the decision. The guidelines include severing ties with Chongryon and removing photographs of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il from classrooms.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government, which has been handing out approximately ¥24 million a year to 10 pro-Pyongyang schools, has also suspended grants for fiscal 2011.

“Municipal subsidies to pro-Pyongyang schools have been handed out for decades without ever being widely reported, but the controversy over the DPJ’s tuition waiver program dragged it into the spotlight,” said Ryuichiro Hirata, chief executive of NARKN, a nationwide nonprofit organization working to secure the return of people abducted by the North.

Hirata said history textbooks used in pro-Pyongyang schools nationwide are edited and carefully checked in Pyongyang, and he believes Japan would send the North the wrong message if it hands money to its schools while issuing various other sanctions.

According to “Modern Korean History — Level 3,” used in pro-Pyongyang high schools and translated into Japanese and published last year by Hagiwara and his organization, the Association of Experts Against Spending Tax Money on Pro-Pyongyang High Schools, South Korea and the United States were responsible for starting the Korean War.

This claim is contrary to common knowledge that the North Korean invasion of South Korea in 1950 was the direct catalyst.

The textbook also states that the 1987 bombing of Korean Air Flight 858 by two North Korean agents, which killed 115 people, was a conspiracy hatched in South Korea to help Roh Tae Woo win the presidential election.

Lee Young Hwa, an economics professor at Kansai University and a North Korea expert, said it is fundamentally wrong that subsidies are being given to pro-Pyongyang schools, which operate under the guidance of Kim Jong Il’s Korean Workers’ Party.

“Unless Japan is a dictatorship, it should not be spending public money to fund schools operated by the KWP,” Lee said, arguing that such schools should only be allowed to continue operations if they severe ties with the North and operate under the principles of democracy.

But there are many who oppose cutting off grants to such schools because of diplomatic tension, arguing it would violate the children’s right to an education and could foster ethnic discrimination.

Pro-Pyongyang schools have been operating in Japan since the 1950s by Koreans who remained here after being conscripted by the Japanese military during the war, or who came here to work or were brought over for forced labor.

Lee Ji Seon, a 27-year-old ethnic Korean resident of Japan, received his elementary, junior high and high school education at pro-Pyongyang schools in Shizuoka and Aichi prefectures. He now works at a Japanese television station after attending Beijing University and studying in the U.S.

Lee said he believes a healthy society should guarantee freedom of thought and belief, and cutting off subsidies to pro-Pyongyang schools would deprive children of their right to an education.

“What would these children think in the future about Japanese society if they are excluded” from receiving grants, Lee said.

He said that during Korean history lessons, he studied Kim Il Sung’s biography and his battle against the Japanese occupation forces, but said he didn’t feel pressured to assume loyalty to Pyongyang, nor did he feel “brainwashed,” as Hiroshi Nakai, former minister in charge of the North Korean abduction issue, once asserted.

“But what’s notable is that many classes were taught in Korean, aimed at nurturing ethnic consciousness,” he said, claiming that world and Japanese history classes were taught free of any propaganda.

Park Il, an economics professor at Osaka City University’s graduate school, is critical of Japan for its indifference toward international schools in general, and said it is “unbelievable” that municipalities such as Osaka are trying to meddle with the content of textbooks used in pro-Pyongyang schools.

“It’s like overseas Japanese schools being ordered by the respective local governments to revise sections in textbooks that mention the Imperial system,” he said.

“Furthermore, North Korea’s bombing of Yeonpyeong Island is unrelated to students studying in pro-Pyongyang schools — I believe it’s outrageous that public support of education could be cut off due to political friction,” he said.

With the March 31 end of fiscal 2010 and the deadline for granting subsidies for schools approaching, it appears certain the debate will intensify in the weeks to come.

Kim Myung Soo, a sociology professor at Kwansei Gakuin University, said it is likely pro-Pyongyang schools will sue the government if the subsidies for fiscal 2010 aren’t distributed.

Kim, who attended a pro-Pyongyang elementary school in Fukuoka Prefecture before switching over to a Japanese school, said it is essential that Japan work toward fighting racial discrimination and protecting foreign residents and minorities, rather than fostering ethnic divides.

“The government is acting emotionally and based on anti-North Korean sentiment. Cutting off subsidies will only send out the message that Japan doesn’t care about human rights,” he said.

UPDATE 2 (2010-11-10): Apparently Tokyo will not take the Chongryon school curricula into account in determining eligibility for subsidies. According to Japan Today:

The Liberal Democratic Party adopted a resolution Tuesday opposing the education ministry’s policy of not factoring in curricula when considering a tuition waiver for schools catering to pro-Pyongyang Korean residents of Japan.

Shigeru Yokota, whose daughter was abducted by North Korea in 1977 at age 13, also voiced opposition to the policy, saying, ‘‘Giving subsidies to (schools) that provide wrong education will cause trouble in the future.’‘

The main opposition party adopted the resolution at a joint meeting of intra-party panels on education and abduction issues. Yokota, 77, attended the gathering.

The government led by the Democratic Party of Japan has since April waived tuition for students who attend public senior high schools in line with the party’s pledge in the August 2009 general election.

Private and other schools equivalent to senior high schools also receive stipends for their students under the national program, but the pro-Pyongyang schools have so far been excluded, pending the establishment of criteria.

The ministry said Friday it has decided not to make the curricula of the pro-Pyongyang schools a factor in deciding whether they are eligible for subsidies under the tuition waiver program.

UPDATE 1  (2010-11-3): According to the AP:

The Japanese education ministry has decided to ask pro- Pyongyang high schools in Japan to use Japanese textbooks of politics and economics when the government includes such high schools in its tuition waiver program, government sources said Tuesday.

The decision is apparently in response to concerns expressed by some lawmakers who have claimed that anti-Japan education is being conducted at these pro-Pyongyang ethnic schools for Korean residents in Japan.

The Japanese government is expected to formally approve a proposal by an education ministry panel to include pro-Pyongyang high schools in Japan in its tuition waiver program, possibly this week.

Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Minister Yoshiaki Takaki appeared to have won the ruling Democratic Party of Japan’s approval for the move at a meeting with DPJ Secretary General Katsuya Okada on Tuesday night, the sources said.

Given a law to respect the autonomy of individual schools’ education policies, including those of pro-Pyongyang schools, the Japanese government does not oblige the schools to purchase Japanese textbooks to benefit from the tuition waiver program, the sources said.

But given concerns about the inclusion of pro-Pyongyang schools in the tuition waiver program, the government will encourage students of these schools to use Japanese textbooks and learn the basics of Japanese society, such as the independence of legislative, administrative and judicial powers, they said.

Takaki is expected to require schools benefiting from the tuition waiver program to submit a document proving that money offered under the program was spent to cover students’ tuition, the sources said.

The government intends to formally decide on the inclusion of pro- Pyongyang schools in the tuition waiver program by the end of this year, and if it is decided, students will be eligible for the program, retroactive to April.

Under a law that took effect in April, senior high school students at Japanese public schools are exempt from tuition fees, while private and other schools equivalent to high schools receive between 118,800 yen to 237,600 yen annually per student depending on household income.

Foreign schools, such as international schools, are eligible for the tuition waiver program if they are recognized as equivalent to Japanese senior high schools after checks with their respective home countries, or if their curricula are accredited by international organizations.

But pro-Pyongyang schools have been excluded as, unlike other foreign schools, it could not be confirmed that they were equivalent to Japanese schools as Japan and North Korea do not have diplomatic ties.

The education ministry set up the panel to consider the eligibility criteria for the tuition waiver.

According to the education ministry, there are 10 pro-Pyongyang high schools in Japan, with an estimated 1,800 students.

Read the full stories here:
Pro-Pyongyang school wants tuitions waived
Kyodo News (via Japan Times)
3/8/2011

Recent tension, pro-North schools’ history spin hurt tuition waiver bid
The Japan Times
Alex Martin
2/5/2011

LDP opposes funding policy regarding pro-Pyongyang schools’ curricula
Japan Today
11/10/2010

Gov’t to ask pro-Pyongyang schools to buy Japanese text books
Associated Press (via Breitbart)
11/3/2010

ORIGINAL POST (2010-8-26): According to KBS (h/t NK news.org):

A Japanese daily says schools in Japan run by a pro-North Korean organization will also soon benefit from high school tuition assistance.

The Mainichi Shimbun says that the schools, which currently do not qualify for subsidies due to their disputed curricula glorifying North Korea, will soon be included on a list of institutions that qualify for state tuition assistance.

The ten such schools, which are operated by an organization of Japanese residents of North Korean descent, have a total of 18-hundred students.

Read the full sotry here:
‘Pro-NK Schools in Japan to Get State Subsidies’
KBS
8/26/2010

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Chongryon headquarters sold for debts – still under DPRK control

Tuesday, October 22nd, 2013

Pictured above (Google Earth): The Chongryon headquarters building in Tokyo ( 35.697001°, 139.743435°).

UPDATE 10 (2105-2-11): According to the Japan Times, the Chongryun building is still under control of the DPRK, even after it was sold:

The building and the land it stands on are mortgaged to a Chongryon-affiliated company on whose board sit a former member of the Supreme People’s Assembly of North Korea and a former president of Korea News Service, a North Korean news agency, people familiar with the situation said.

Records show ownership of the building and land was transferred to a real estate firm in Sakata, Yamagata Prefecture, on Jan. 28 from a real estate company in Takamatsu, Kagawa Prefecture, which place the successful auction bid.

The fact that the property is mortgaged to a Chongryon-affiliated company suggests the organization played a role in shifting ownership to the Sakata real estate firm, people close to Japanese public security authorities said.

The Sakata real estate firm is expected to lease the property to Chongryon so that it can continue using the building, informed sources said.

UPDATE 9 (2015-2-6): According to the South China Morning Post, there is a new fog of suspicion that has set over the former Chongryun headquarters:

A former Chinese diplomat once named as a spy in Japan’s parliament has business links to an obscure firm that has purchased the de facto North Korean embassy in Tokyo.

Wang Xinghu, who was previously stationed at the Chinese embassy but claims to have become a businessman, has set up a consultancy called HKS Japan with Takeharu Inamura, a Japanese national, according to records seen by the South China Morning Post.

It emerged last week that Inamura’s other company, a small warehousing firm that is called Green Forest, paid ¥4.4 billion (HK$290.7 million) to buy Pyongyang’s biggest asset in Japan, the headquarters of the quasi-official Chongryon organisation.

But Green Forest has limited resources and experience in the property sector, and questions are being asked about where the firm acquired the cash.

Chongryon’s imposing headquarters was initially put up for auction in 2012 at the request of the Japanese government’s debt collection agency after the association for North Korean residents of Japan defaulted on debts of more than ¥62 billion.

After two initial attempts to purchase the building fell through – one by a religious group with links to an organised crime gang with North Korean members and the second a shell company based in Mongolia but with no assets and no traceable history – the property was sold last year to Marunaka Holdings, a Japanese construction company.

After paying ¥2.21 billion for the building and demanding that Chongryon vacate it so the plot could be redeveloped, Marunaka suddenly changed its mind and sold the property – for ¥4.4 billion and a swift profit – to Inamura’s company, which is based in rural Yamagata Prefecture, has no history or licence to operate in the real-estate sector. Its annual turnover is a paltry ¥19 million.

In corporate documents, Chongryon is now listed as the mortgagee and will be allowed to remain in the property. The sale took place on January 28.

Phone calls to the offices of both HKS Japan and Green Forest were not answered. Local media have reported that Inamura lives in a small rented apartment in Tokyo’s Nakano district, but the curtains have remained drawn and the lights off since the deal was revealed.

Wang – who was named by Japanese politician Katsuei Hirasawa in the Diet in July 2012 as a Chinese spy – is apparently out of the country. Hirasawa is a former official of the Japanese police whose responsibilities primarily focused on foreign intelligence issues. At the time Hirasawa made his allegations, the Sankei Shimbun reported Wang was a member of to China’s Ministry of State Security.

Chongryon is also refusing to talk to the Post.

A Japanese human rights activist who is demanding that more international pressure be applied to the North Korean regime says he believed China was involved in the transaction.

“Wang cannot fund the Chongryon headquarters deal without the consent and financing of the Chinese government,” claimed Ken Kato, director of Human Rights in Asia and a member of the International Coalition to Stop Crimes Against Humanity in North Korea.

“It is a mystery why China has decided to spend billions of yen to save Chongryon’s face,” he added. “I am sure that China understands that once their involvement in the deal is revealed, it will anger the Japanese public.

“The Chongryon HQ was sold not because of ‘discrimination’ or ‘persecution,’ as they are insisting,” he added. “It was sold because they refused to pay back a debt that Japanese taxpayers were forced to shoulder.”

Kato is indignant North Korea is refusing to honour its debts in Japan despite spending vast sums on nuclear and ballistic missile programmes.

There have been several years of friction between China and erstwhile ally North Korea, and if Beijing funded the purchase of the building, it could be a sign that China wants to get the relationship back on track.

Beijing was angered when Pyongyang ignored its pressure to not go ahead with a third underground nuclear test in 2013 and, subsequently, a series of missile test-launches.

Since Beijing got tough on the regime of Kim Jong-un – including halting all supplies of fuel oil – North Korea turned its attentions to Russia and has been busily courting its new ally. Moscow and Pyongyang have agreed to carry out a series of military drills this year, major Russian investment in North Korean infrastructure is under way, and Kim has reportedly accepted an invitation to attend a ceremony marking the end of the second world war in Moscow in May.

UPDATE 8 (2014-11-7): Chongryun has lost its appeal for the forced sale of its Tokyo headquarters. According to a media report:

Chongryun, the association that represents North Korean residents of Japan, is running out of ways to keep its most prized asset after the Supreme Court ruled that the sale of its headquarters to a Japanese real estate developer would go ahead.

The dismissal of the appeal by Chongryun represents “a serious loss of face” for the organisation and the North Korean leadership, according to analysts, and could even serve to weaken links between the regime’s citizens in Japan and their homeland.

“They have not made any official comments yet but it is clear that this will be a major disappointment because it is such a serious loss of face,” Ken Kato, a Tokyo-based human rights activist, said.

“I also hope that North Koreans living in Japan … are able to stand up against the regime. Many of them have relatives in North Korea and they are effectively held as hostages to ensure that the people here send back ‘donations’ that are then spent on developing missiles and nuclear weapons,” Kato said. “I hope they wake up to the reality.”

Representatives of Chongryun could not be contacted but sources said last month that retaining a building that served as an embassy in Japan had been made a priority by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

Chongryun leader Ho Jong-man visited North Korea for the first time in eight years in October and, although he was not able to meet him in person, was handed a personal letter from Kim.

One of the instructions in the letter was to secure the continued use of the Chongryun headquarters in Tokyo.

The Supreme Court’s decision makes that target effectively impossible and will not go down well in Pyongyang.

The legal decision is in favour of Marunaka Holdings, which had lodged a bid of 2.21 billion yen (HK$149.5 million) for the building and the prime 2,387 square metre plot that it occupies in Chiyoda Ward.

Moves to sell the building began in March after the government-backed Resolution and Collection called in loans amounting to more than 62 billion yen that it had extended to the residents’ association.

Chongryun initially attempted to sell the property to a Kagoshima-based religious order that would permit the organisation to remain in residence. It was later alleged that the temple had links to underworld groups. The deal fell through when the temple was unable to raise the funds.

The next bidder was a mysterious Mongolian company known as Avar that was using an address in Ulan Bator but had no presence at the building and had never previously purchased a property in Japan.

Analysts believe it was a front for the North Korean government. That transaction was blocked by authorities in Japan for a lack of transparency, triggering a third round of bidding.

UPDATE 7 (2014-4-11): DPRK claims to send funds to Chongryun. According to KCNA:

Kim Jong Un Sends Educational Aid Fund and Stipends to Children of Koreans in Japan

Pyongyang, April 11 (KCNA) — Supreme leader Kim Jong Un sent educational aid fund and stipends amounting to 207.8 million yen to the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan for the democratic national education of children of Koreans in Japan on the occasion of the 102nd birth anniversary of President Kim Il Sung.

The educational aid fund and stipends sent by Generalissimos Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il and Marshal Kim Jong Un in 160 installments total 47,331,150,390 yen.

Since the Mangyongbong-92 is no longer traveling the East Sea/Sea of Japan, I wonder how the funds will be transferred.

The Chongryun have seen bad financial news lately:

1. Chongryun headquarters in central Tokyo was recently auctioned off for debts incurred helping the DPRK get through the Arduous March.

2. Chongryon schools are not eligible for some Japanese education subsidies.

UPDATE 6 (2014-3-29): KCNA reports (surprise!) that the DPRK is not happy about the sale of the Chongryun headquarters building. Below are two related articles:

Japanese Authorities Warned of Their Moves to Seize Korean Hall of Chongryon

Pyongyang, March 29 (KCNA) — The Committee for Aiding Overseas Compatriots of Korea made public a statement on Friday denouncing the Japanese authorities for their extremely dangerous moves to stifle the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan (Chongryon) and Koreans in Japan.

On March 24 the Japanese authorities took such fascist action as instigating the Tokyo District Court to make an illegal decision to allow the sale of the land and building of the Korean Hall of Chongryon.

This is a wanton violation of the dignity and existence right of Chongryon and Koreans in Japan and a grave infringement upon the sovereignty of the DPRK, the statement said, adding:

The Japanese authorities are feigning ignorance of the fact, noting that the decision was made by a “judiciary organ” in a bid to evade the blame for seizing the Korean hall. But this is no more than an excuse to cover up their sinister criminal purpose.

It is their sinister political scenario to deprive the Central Standing Committee of Chongryon of the base of its activities and thus weaken the authority of Chongryon, a model of Juche-based overseas Koreans’ movement, and dampen the elated patriotic enthusiasm of Koreans so as to stamp out the movement of Koreans in Japan.

The statement went on:

Now that the Japanese authorities deliberately touched off distrust at a time when confidence-building is required for improving the DPRK-Japan relations more urgently than ever before the DPRK is compelled to take corresponding measures.

If the Japanese authorities persist in their moves to seize the Korean Hall despite the warning of the DPRK, they will be wholly responsible for the consequences to be entailed by them.

Illegal Decision of Tokyo District Court Slammed

Pyongyang, March 29 (KCNA) — The Tokyo District Court made a decision to allow the sale of the land and building of the Korean Hall of the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan (Chongryon) under the backstage wire-pulling of the Japanese authorities. The spokesman for the Democratic Lawyers Association of Korea Saturday released a statement disclosing the illegality of the decision.

The statement says:

The illegality of the decision finds its vivid manifestation in that the court selected a disqualified company as a successful bidder by fraud and swindle.

The Tokyo District Court had delayed the announcement of the results of auction of the Korean Hall of Chongryon, which was made in October of 2013. On March 20, it reopened the tenders for it for no reason all of a sudden and made the decision to allow the sale to the Marunaka Holdings Co. Ltd., Japan.

As far as the above-said company is concerned, it had already been disqualified as it underbid others in October last year and took back bid bond from the court.

In particular, it is a precedent of the Japanese courts that in case the relevant court returned the bid bond to a disqualified company it would not make a decision to allow the sale to it.

Therefore, it was a crude violation of the law in every aspect that the court chose the above-said company as a successful bidder.

The illegality of the decision of the Tokyo District Court is also evidenced by the double-dealing attitude of the Resolution and Collection Corporation, a creditor.

When the issue of the Korean Hall presented itself, the Corporation made a hostile and discriminating demand that Chongryon should repay a total amount plus interest though it has settled issues with other debtors in a friendly manner.

But the Corporation kept mum about the decision of the Tokyo District Court to sell the Korean Hall at a price less than half the actual one.

The Japanese authorities has long regarded the Korean Hall of Chongryon on which the flag of the DPRK is fluttering as a thorn in their flesh and run the whole gamut of plots to seize it.

That was why the Tokyo District Court staged an unprecedented farce in disregard of the Japanese law, precedents of the courts and practices of the basic procedures for tenders

The Democratic Lawyers Association of Korea categorically rejects the decision of the Tokyo District Court and declares internally and externally that the illegal decision is invalid, the statement says.

The Japanese authorities had better halt their moves to seize the Korean Hall, though belatedly, if it thinks of its face as a “law-governed state” even a bit and has real intention to improve the relations with the DPRK, the statement concludes.

UPDATE 5 (2014-3-24): A Japanese estate agency has been approved to buy the property. According to  NTD:

A court ruled Monday that a Japanese estate agency could buy the Tokyo property that serves as North Korea’s de facto embassy, after an earlier bid fell through.

The decision from the Tokyo District Court drew an immediate and angry reaction from Chongryon, the organisation that represents North Korean interests in Japan in the absence of diplomatic ties.

“This is an unfair decision. We cannot accept it,” said an organisation spokesman, adding that an appeal would be lodged.

The site — a 2,390-square-metre (25,725-square-feet) plot and 10-storey building occupied by Chongryon — was put up for auction after it was seized by authorities over unpaid debts.

Monday’s ruling gave real estate firm Marunaka Holdings the right to buy the building for 2.21 billion yen ($22 million), after a winning bid from an obscure Mongolia-registered company fell apart.

The Avar Limited Liability Company had won an auction in October with a bid of 5.01 billion yen, beating Marunaka’s offer. But the court disqualified the offer several months later reportedly due to flawed documentation amid questions over whether the firm had links to Pyongyang.

Japanese law bars an organisation forced to sell assets from taking part in an auction of them.

The Japanese firm is planning to remove the North Korean-linked organisation from the property, reports said, but it was unclear if it still planned to go through with the purchase following the judgement.

Hundreds of thousands of ethnic Koreans live in Japan, mostly a legacy of those who emigrated or were forced to move to Japan during its 1910-1945 colonial rule of the Korean peninsula.

About 10 percent are believed to be affiliated with Chongryon, which charges that the community is persecuted by authorities and harassed by right-wing activists.

UPDATE 4 (2014-1-23): NK News reports that the mysterious Mongolian firm has been blocked from purchasing the former headquarters building.

A Japanese court has blocked a Mongolia-based company’s bid to buy the Tokyo headquarters of the main pro-North Korea organization in Japan, Chongryon.

After months of screening, the Tokyo District Court announced on Thursday that due to purchase irregularities it would not allow the Ulan Bator-based Avar Limited Liability Company to purchase the property, which still serves as the headquarters for Japan’s main pro-North Korea organization.

The Mongolian firm, which had previously won an October 2013 auction for the building with a 5.01 billion yen (U.S. $48 million bid) bid, was rejected by the court because a certificate it submitted to support the purchase appeared to be a color photocopy and did not bear the official seal of the Mongolian government.

“It is a company on paper,” Hideshi Takesada, an expert on regional security at Takushoku University in Tokyo, told NK News on Thursday.

“With the bid tendering highly unlikely to be successful, Chongryon will be able to stay at the headquarters building and use the land. In a sense, the Japanese government is doing a favor for North Korea,” Takesada said. Takesada is a former executive director of the National Institute for Defense Studies in Tokyo, the Japanese Ministry of Defense’s think-tank.

UPDATE 3 (2013-10-22): Apparently funding fell through for the Buddhist group, and the building was put up for sale again. A Mongolian firm stepped forward to buy the building, but this was halted over fears that the new firm was a front for North Korean interests. According to the South China Morning Post:

The Tokyo District Court acted yesterday in response to a petition for an injunction on the sale filed by Ken Kato, director of Human Rights in Asia. Kato’s request pointed out that would-be buyer Avar was registered at an address in Ulan Bator, but the company apparently had no presence there.

When a Japanese television team arrived at the Mongolian address to ask about the purchase of the 10-storey building that is now occupied by Chongryon, the organisation that represents North Korean residents of Japan, and the prime plot it occupies in Chiyoda Ward, they were met by a bemused woman.

She told the TV crew her family had been living in the apartment for seven years and had never heard of Avar.

“I told the court that this was a typical case of money laundering and that the court cannot permit the transaction to go ahead,” Kato told the South China Morning Post. “The address is fake and the registration of the company must therefore be illegal.”

No deadline has been set for the court to make a decision on whether the transaction will go ahead, but Kato is confident any investigation will lead back to the North Korean leader. “Kim Jong-un wants to save face and not lose this property and I’m sure the decision to pay more than the market value is a case of a dictator’s whim,” he said.

The minimum price for bidders for the property was set at 2.13 billion yen (HK$168 million), while a previous deal to buy the building in May for 4.52 billion yen fell through when the buyer, the chief priest of Saifukuji Temple, was unable to raise the funds by the deadline. Kato said it was therefore curious that the latest sale price was 5.01 billion yen.

“The buyer could have got it for a lot less than that and I believe they offered so much in the hope no answers would be asked and the real purchaser could remain anonymous,” he said.

That was always likely to be a vain hope, given the interest in the property, which was put on the market in March by the government-backed Resolution and Collection Corp. in an effort to recoup loans of 62 billion yen that it extended to the residents’ association after the collapse of a number of financial institutions for North Korean residents of Japan.

The involvement of a Mongolian firm also raised eyebrows in Japan, as no Mongolian firm has ever purchased a building in Tokyo and there are very few Mongolian companies with enough cash to carry out such a deal.

As well as the suggestion that Avar is a front company for the North Korean regime, there has also been speculation that the Mongolian government might be involved as part of the burgeoning relationship between the two regimes.

UPDATE 2 (2013-3-27): A Buddhist order on good terms with the Chongryun won the property auction and will allow the Chongryun to remain on the premises.  According to the Japan Times:

The Kagoshima temple offered ¥4.5 billion, the highest among four bidders, to acquire the land and the Chongryon building.

“We will keep the building as it is and make it a base of harmony among ethnic groups in Asia, including North Korea,” said Saifuku Temple leader Ekan Ikeguchi.

“The function of our headquarters will be maintained for the time being, at least,” a Chongryon official said. “We feel relieved.”

The government-backed Resolution and Collection Corp. put the premises out to tender to recoup loans of about ¥62.7 billion it made to Chongryon.

UPDATE 1 (2013-3-13): The Wall Street Journal’s Japan Real Time reports that the auction has finally begun on the Chongryun’s headquarters building in central Tokyo. According to the article:

Bidding has begun for the repossessed central headquarters of the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan, North Korea’s de-facto embassy in the country. It’s an attempt by the Japanese government to get back some of the ¥62.7 billion owed by the pro-Pyongyang group, also known as Chongryon, and comes as the reclusive regime faces a new round of sanctions and international condemnation following its third nuclear test.

Built in 1986, the 10-story office building has two basement floors and is situated on a 2,390 square-meter piece of land in a prime location in central Tokyo. The Tokyo District Court said in its assessment of the building that some portions of it showed signs of age-related deterioration as well as damage incurred during the massive 2011 earthquake that shook northeastern Japan.

Analysts say that as the auctioneer’s hammer falls, so falls the fortunes of the once-influential group.

“Losing its central headquarters is symbolic of Chongryon’s decline,” said Hajime Izumi, Professor of International Relations at Shizuoka University. “While the organization will survive, I expect it to face increasing difficulty maintaining itself,” he said.

Founded in 1955 as an organization representing the pro-North Korean members of Japan’s ethnic Korean minority, Chongryon has been responsible for pumping out North Korean propaganda and has been operating banks, a newspaper and numerous schools for Korean residents in Japan.

The group has also been a reliable source of hard cash for Pyongyang, with members sending back a large portion of revenue accumulated through numerous “pachinko” gambling parlors and real-estate businesses operated across the nation.

But Yoshifu Arita, an upper house lawmaker in Japan’s parliament, said the organization faced severe head-winds in 2002 when the late Kim Jong Il admitted during a meeting with then-Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi that North Korean agents had kidnapped Japanese nationals in the 1970s and 1980s.

“This led to a massive public backlash toward North Korea as well the organization,” he said. “It led to many disillusioned members leaving Chongryon as pressure on them mounted.”

Chongryon’s debt stems from a network of credit unions for pro-North Korean residents of Japan that collapsed and had to be bailed out by the government-backed Resolution and Collection Corporation in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The debt has been transferred to Chongryon, which has been sued by the RCC for repayment.

A 72-year-old South Korean businessman living in Kobe, who used to be affiliated with Chongryon, added that the younger generation of Koreans in Japan also felt less of a link and patriotism toward Pyongyang. And with Japan’s long economic malaise following the burst of its debt bubble in the early 1990s, “pro-Pyongyang supporters don’t have the cash or the will to lend a hand to the organization, even when its headquarters are about to be sold off,” added the businessman, who asked not to be identified.

Bids for the building, which began Tuesday, will be accepted through March 19. The winner of the auction, which Chongryon cannot participate in, is expected to be decided on March 29.

ORIGINAL POST (2012-7-26): The Atlantic has a great piece on recent developments with the General Association of Koreans in Japan (Chongryon or Chosen Soren):

In late June, a Japanese court ordered Chongryon, a business, education, and banking organization formally representing pro-North Korean members of Japan’s ethnic Korean minority, to auction off its ten-story office building in downtown Tokyo, effectively ending its mission of bringing money into North Korea and pushing propaganda out. The group’s problems are essentially financial: Chongryon owes the Japanese government nearly $750 million for a late-90s emergency bailout that rescued the group’s network of credit unions, which were rapidly de-capitalized because of remittances to North Korea during the country’s devastating mid-90s famine, an economic and humanitarian catastrophe that killed up to 2 million people.

As with just about anything regarding North Korea, even the surface-level truth belies deeper and darker realities. If it weren’t for the chronic economic crisis and resulting famine that gripped North Korea in the 1990s, as well as a rising anti-North Korean strain in Japanese politics, then the criminal enterprises, communal bonds, and official connections that made Chongryon such a formidable political and cultural organization may well have remained intact. It took economic collapse, regional crisis, and domestic political upheaval to bring Chongryon to its knees.

North Korea has no official embassy in Japan, so the Pyongyang-linked Chongryon acts as an unofficial representative of a government that has kidnapped Japanese citizens and fired long-range missiles in the island nation’s direction. It runs banks, a newspaper, dozens of schools, and a university named after Kim Il Sung, North Korea’s “eternal leader” and the current despot’s grandfather. In the 1980s, Chongryon’s business and criminal enterprises, which included off-book pachinko parlors, pubs, prostitution rings, and real estate, reportedly produced over a billion dollars a year in revenue — much of which, according to Michael J. Green of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, was sent back to Pyongyang. As late as 1990, its banking system was capitalized to the tune of $25 billion.

Because North Korea has few exports and is under severe international sanctions, unofficial currency-gathering enterprises like this one can be crucial. And the group also serves as a propaganda outlet, pushing out the DPRK party line to ethnic Koreans. It would be unimaginable for North Korea to own a K-Street high-rise, and South Korea officially bans any expression of support for its northern neighbor. But Japan has allowed its enemy’s outpost to remain, and even thrive.

The full story is well worth reading here.

Here are previous posts on the Chongryon including a post from 2010 when the Japanese Supreme Court ruled that the headquarters could be seized.

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Fewer Japanese cars reported on DPRK roads

Thursday, May 31st, 2012

According to the Daily NK:

Japanese-made vehicles are disappearing from the streets of North Korea, six years after Kim Jong Il decreed that it should happen. Indeed, just two years ago it seemed that a majority of the vehicles on the streets were still those made by Toyota, Nissan and Mitsubishi, but this is no longer the case.

According to a Chongjin source who spoke with Daily NK yesterday, “In accordance with a 2010 National Defense Commission order saying that all Japanese cars had to be off the streets by last December, now you can hardly see any Japanese private cars or vans in the entire country.”

The NDC order reportedly pertained to private cars and vans of 1.5T or less, although the source said that trucks of Japanese origin are also meant to be phased out over the next couple of years as well.

The move is said to relate to a decree issued by Kim Jong Il in 2006 in which he demanded that all Japanese cars had to be gotten rid of. He apparently issued it after watching unhappily as a Japanese car overtook his own on the Pyongyang-Wonsan highway.

Another case is instructive in showing the degree of official dislike. In 2008, Namkang Trading Co. had already been importing second hand Japanese cars through Rasun for some time. However, a provincial Party secretary received a report on the removal of Japanese cars, and as a result more than 300 such cars were gathered in a local stadium and turned into scrap metal using fork cranes as cadres watched on.

But it was not really until four years after Kim’s original decree that implementation hit its stride, because it took some time to secure sufficient replacement vehicles. Pyongyang municipal, Party, state and security organs were the first to lose theirs in 2010, followed in 2011 by factories, enterprises and foreign currency earning units.

According to the source, “At the time, there were more than 100 perfectly good vehicles taken from North Hamkyung Provincial Party Committee alone.” The transportation head in the province apparently commented that “tens of thousands of perfectly sound vehicles have been gotten rid of nationwide.”

However, in October, 2010, Kim Jong Il delivered cars as gifts to key individuals and organizations. There were nationwide events held to celebrate receipt of the vehicles. Cadres at provincial Party departmental head and above received Chinese vehicles, while local Party secretaries and people’s committee chairmen received Russian ones. Factories and enterprises were subsequently ordered to purchase vehicles produced domestically in Nampo by ‘Pyeonghwa Motors’, a joint venture with the Seoul-based Unification Church, but this didn’t always happen.

The relative popularity of Japanese vehicles in North Korea stems in part from their build quality, which allows them to traverse the often sketchy North Korean roads, and in part from the fact that they used to represent a good trading opportunity in the 1980s and 90s. At that time, such vehicles could be imported from Japan and sold on to Chinese businesses at a profit margin of up to 400%. Domestic popularity was one of the inevitable side-effects of this trade.

Previous posts on this topic here (2007-7-11) and here (2007-7-27).

Read the full story here:
Japanese Cars Crashing Out
Daily NK
Choi Song Min
2012-5-31

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Japanese police bust computer smuggling operation

Sunday, February 19th, 2012

UPDATE 1 (2012-2-28): The Japanese police have raided the heaquarters of Chongryun (Chosen Soren), the Pro-DPRK General Association of Korean Residents in Japan, over its alleged ties to the computer smuggling ring. According to the BBC:

Japanese police have raided the offices of a pro-North Korean organisation suspected of a role in the illegal shipment of computers to North Korea.

Japan maintains a total ban on exports to North Korea.

It is part of a range of sanctions over North Korea’s nuclear programme and its abduction of Japanese nationals in the 1970s and 80s.

Earlier this month police arrested a businessman accused of exporting PCs to North Korea through China.

On Tuesday, about 100 riot police entered the Tokyo offices of an organisation connected to the Pyongyang-affiliated General Association of Korean Residents in Japan, officials say.

Because there are no diplomatic relations between the two countries, the association has functioned as North Korea’s de facto embassy in Japan.[

The raid came after prosecutors last week indicted Lee Soon-Gi, 49, who is accused of illegally exporting 100 second-hand personal computers to North Korea through China, officials said.

The affiliate organisation may be involved in the shipments, police say.

But the association has strongly criticised the raid which it described as an “unjustified and illegal investigation”.

ORIGINAL POST (2012-2-19): According to the Yomuri Shimbun:

The president of a Tokyo-based dealer in secondhand personal computers exported more than 4,000 items to North Korea, according to investigation sources.

Many of the items are believed to have been sold on the black market to senior members of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea, the sources said.

Lee Sungi, president of Popura-Tec, was arrested earlier this month by the Metropolitan Police Department’s Public Safety Department on suspicion of violating the Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Law.

The 49-year-old has been arrested on suspicion of exporting 100 notebook computers to North Korea. In addition, Lee has told police that he shipped more than 4,000 personal computers and liquid-crystal displays to that country on four occasions from 2008 to 2009.

A North Korean trading company based in Dalian, China, brokered the deals, selling the products to a computer shop in Pyongyang, the sources said.

The shop was run by a North Korean computer engineer who once worked at a Chinese company as a software developer. He reportedly contacted Lee in March 2007, saying: “There’s demand for about 1,000 personal computers a month [in North Korea]. I’m interested in buying Japanese products,” according to the sources.

E-mails he sent to Lee suggested there were hundreds of computer shops throughout North Korea, of which 20 were in the capital. However, most of the country’s computer users do not use these shops because they cannot afford to buy their products.

Instead, they usually buy their computers through the black market, the sources said.

Most of the personal computers Lee exported from Japan were secondhand products, including some that had been leased to central and local government offices, according to the sources.

The North Korean computer engineer reportedly sold about 500 products per month to the black market, setting prices at 200 dollars or less for a desktop computer, and a maximum of 300 dollars for a notebook computer, the sources said.

This was still expensive for North Korea, which meant only senior members of North Korea’s ruling party and other wealthy individuals could purchase them, according to the sources.

It is reportedly common for North Korean computer users to buy new products when their items break down because there are almost no after-sales services in the country, according to the sources.

On February 2, 2012 we learned about a separate PC smuggling ring which moved computers from Japan to the DPRK.

Read the full story here:
4,000 PCs, displays said exported to North Korea
Yomuri Shimbun
2012-2-19

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