Archive for the ‘Japan’ Category

Pyongyang Information Center (PIC)

Monday, December 6th, 2010

Pictured Above (Google Earth): Pyongyang Information Center and Annex

* AKA Pyongyang Informatics Center

Choi Sung, Professor of computer science at Namseoul University, writes in the IT Times:

I have been writing about North Korea’s IT industry since the start of this year. In this installment, I would like to introduce North Korea’s major information and communications institution. If the Choson Computer Centre (KCC) is called the centerpiece of North Korea’s IT R&D, Pyongyang Information Centre (PIC) is the mecca of their software development. The PIC, founded on July 15, 1986, was jointly funded by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Jochongnyeon (the pro-Pyongyang federation of Korean residents in Japan). It is situated in Kyong-Heung dong near the Botong River in Pyongyang.

The PIC was created as the Pyongyang Program Development Company and changed its name to Pyongyang Electronic Calculator Operator in October of 1988 and then again to Pyongyang Information Centre (PIC) in July of 1991. As of now, the best and the brightest of North Korea’s IT talent is developing various kinds of programs and devices at the PIC: nearly 300 IT professionals, who graduated from the North’s most prestigious universities such as Kim Il-sung University, Kim Chaek University of Technology and Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST), are on the payroll of the PIC.

On the overseas front, the PIC has its branches in China, Japan and Singapore, where PIC IT experts are working on software development, and has teamed up with foreign companies to jointly develop software programs and expedite technology transfers. The PIC, North Korea’s major software developer, has been at the vanguard of these following areas: language information processing, machinery translation, document editing, global IMEs (Input Message Editor), computer-aided design (CAD), networks, database systems, fonts, multimedia, dynamic images, etc. For instance, the PIC’s database development taskforce consists of about 40 IT experts, who are all working on the development of information management systems for production lines, companies and other institutions. The PIC’s publishing group has been engaged in various R&D projects from the development of Chang-Deok, a PC word processor, to DTP (desk top publishing) systems for Mac computers. Last but not least, the PIC’s application software group is keen on CAD, virtual reality and the development of project management devices. The PIC has been developing a plethora of software products: embedded software, CAD, image processing, Korean-language information processing and systems, network management systems, multimedia dynamic images, etc. The PIC’s 3D CAD has been widely employed by North Korean and foreign architectural design companies and more sophisticated versions of it are coming out. What’s more, the PIC is ramping up its joint R&D efforts with overseas IT developers with a focus on the development of diverse image processing programs. Korean-language information processing and systems are about developing the technologies for character recognition, voice recognition, natural language processing and primary retrieval while the development of network management systems includes fire walls, security solutions, encryption, e-commerce, IC cards, instant messenger programs, mobile game programs, etc. They are also working on the development of multimedia and dynamic images: technologies for producing 3D materials, 2D cartoon production and the technology for adding accompaniments to images are being developed. The PIC’s font development team has developed 300 Korean fonts and a myriad of calligraphic styles for imported mobile phones and dot fonts for PDAs.

The PIC has thus far scaled up its IT exchanges with overseas information and technology companies as well as R&D institutions. A case in point is the North-South joint venture, HANA Program Center, which is located in Dandong-si in Liaoning, China and was jointly invested in May of 2001 by the PIC and North-South HANA Biz, a subsidiary of South Korea’s Dasan Network. Another showpiece of the PIC’s effort for joint R&D is the software development for fonts and Chinese character recognition in collaboration with Soltworks (an e-publishing software developer). On top of that, the PIC’s IT exchanges with overseas institutions have been on the rise.

As such, inter-Korean cooperation projects will serve as the driving force behind the PIC’s IT exchanges with South Korea. To that end, non-military sanctions imposed on Pyongyang should be eased, such as the Wassenaar Arrangement (a multilateral export control regime (MECR) with 40 participating states) should be eased to move US – North Korea relations forward and the US’s EAR (Export Administration Regulation) on the North should be scaled back. Above all, IT-initiated unification of the two Koreas should be preceded by pragmatic dialogues with the North and North Korea’s efforts for reaching out to other nations. As of now, the North needs to draw up a future blueprint to embark on phased cooperation with the S. Korean government and companies in a bid to open its doors to the international community.

UPDATE from a reader who has spent some time there:

[T]hey are an interesting institution that not everyone has a chance to see from the inside. What was interesting is that they really work on software for foreign markets (i.e. mobile software for well known international cell network providers). In addition to that they have an impressive library of books on all topics of software development which was up-to-date at the time I visited.

In contrast to the other institutions they immediately showed commercial accomplishments instead of where the leaders have walked. Employees have access to a gym too. A place out of place in Pyongyang. What I found interesting in the article is that the mentioned developments match some of those the KCC presents in their building. The PIC made much more an impression of a service unit for foreign customers than for the country itself. However, they are training hardware specialists for the infrastructure there.

Read the full story here:
North Korea’s IT Application Software Development Center – Pyongyang Information Centre (PIC)
IT Times
Choi Sung
12/6/2010

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KCNA re-launched on DPRK-owned IP address

Monday, December 6th, 2010

UPDATE 4 (12/6/2010): Martyn Williams informs us that the new KCNA web page has undergone a second round of changes:

Also new is the addition of Korean-language articles to the previously-available English and Spanish news.

The front page includes an image, the day’s headlines and links to seven category menus. I had problems with some of the links and the menus when accessed via Firefox, but they function with Internet Explorer.

It still has to be accessed via an ugly all-numeric address but new is a copyright line that states:

Copyright © 2000-2010 by www.star.edu.kp all rights reserved.

This is the first time I’ve seen the name “www.star.edu.kp.” The Star could refer to “Star JV,” the DPRK-Thai joint venture that runs the North Korean IP address space. That company is planning to use “www.star.net.kp” for it’s own homepage. But the “edu” typically signifies an educational domain.

At present all KP domain names remain offline. The German server that was responsible for serving the dot-kp top-level domain has been offline for several months.

Because this is the second of an unknown number of versions, I will call this “new KCNA v2.”

Below is a screen shot of the original version:

Photo from Martyn Williams

UPDATE 3 (10/21/2010): Martyn Williams reports that the South Korean government is now blocking the new North Korean web pages.

Internet users in South Korea had been able to access the website earlier this week, but as of Thursday attempts to connect are redirected to a National Police Agency page that warns the site’s content is prohibited in South Korea.

The blocking isn’t a surprise. About 30 Web sites with North Korean connections have been blocked for several years by the South Korean government. They include a similar site operated from Tokyo that, like the new site, carries news in English and Spanish from the official Korea Central News Agency (KCNA).

UPDATE 2: More in the comments.

UPDATE 1: You can see the new KCNA here (hat tip to “PR”).

ORIGINAL POST: Martyn Williams writes in Computer World:

North Korea appears to have made its first full connection to the Internet. The connection, planning for which has been going on for at least nine months, came as the reclusive country prepares to mark the 65th anniversary of the founding of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea with a massive celebration and military parade.

A Web site for the country’s official news agency [KCNA] was the first to appear from among a group of 1,024 Internet addresses that had been reserved for North Korea but never used. The Korea Central News Agency’s new Web site is different from one operated by a group in Tokyo and carries news and photos a day ahead of the Japanese site.

Other North Korea-linked Web sites and a recently launched Twitter feed operate from locations outside the country or via direct connections to China’s national Internet.

The site appeared as Pyongyang welcomed foreign journalists to the city to observe Sunday’s parade. A press room for the journalists was set up at the Koryo Hotel and reporters were given full access to the Internet. Typically visitors to Pyongyang are only able to make telephone calls or send e-mails through designated computers.

“The North Korean IT guys at the press room really know their stuff. We’re logged on,” wrote Melissa Chan, a correspondent for Al Jazeera, in a Twitter message.

She later appeared live on the channel via a Skype link.

“We have access to Facebook, Twitter and here I am able to Skype with you,” she said.

The access is extraordinary for a country that keeps such tight control on how its citizens communicate.

While Internet access is believed to be available to small group of elite members of the ruling party, the rest of the country is not permitted access to outside sources of news.

Radios are pre-tuned to state broadcasts, magazines and newspapers from other countries are banned and the only Web access available is to a nationwide intranet that doesn’t link to sites outside of the country. As PCs are unusual at home, most access is via terminals in libraries.

The first signs of a greater interest in the Internet came late last year when a batch of Internet addresses, long reserved for North Korea, were assigned to a North Korean-Thai joint venture.

The numeric IP addresses lie at the heart of communication on the Internet. Every computer connected to the network needs its own address so that data can be sent and received by the correct servers and computers. Without them, communication would be impossible.

Frequent monitoring of the addresses by IDG News Service repeatedly failed to turn up any use of them until now.

An analysis of the connection to the news agency Web site shows it is connected to the wider Internet via China Netcom.

It’s impossible to tell if the access given to journalists in Pyongyang marks a turning point in the way the country regulates access to communications, or if it’s simply a courtesy made available to create a good impression among journalists.

The founding anniversary of the Workers’ Party of Korea is a big deal for the country every year, but this year is especially important. Kim Jong Eun, son of leader Kim Jong Il, has just taken his first position within the party, which rules North Korea. His appointment to the party’s Central Committee and the Central Military Commission are first steps towards a likely future position as leader of the country.

I have had a hard time locating the new web page (Google has not scraped it), but I will post it here soon.

The KCNA site run by the Chongryon in Japan is here.  The new version also seems to offer both English and Spanish versions.

Read more here:
North Korea opens up Internet for national anniversary
Computer World
Martyn Williams
10/9/2010

…and Martyn’s personal web page: http://www.northkoreatech.org/

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Rimjingang to be published in English

Thursday, October 28th, 2010

According to the Mainichi Daily News:

A magazine composed almost entirely of materials smuggled out of North Korea by reporters living inside the country has just launched its first English edition in an effort to reach a wider audience.

The quarterly Rimjingang has been available in Korean and Japanese since 2008. The English edition will be published about twice a year from now on, chief editor Jiro Ishimaru said at a recent meeting in New York University, adding that digital editions in various formats will be available from 2011, including one from Apple Inc.’s iBook store.

Published by Asiapress International, a Japan-based journalists’ organization, the magazine is named after a river in the Korean Peninsula flowing north to south across the demilitarized zone. It operates with eight North Koreans who report clandestinely while living in such capacities as driver, factory worker and mother.

All of the reporters left North Korea because of economic hardships but returned to the country after being recruited to work for the magazine, which provides them with journalistic training and recording equipment.

In a country that tightly regulates information, taking images of street-level North Koreans for outside distribution would most likely be construed as treason. For safety, the identities of the North Korean reporters are completely shrouded in secrecy — they do not know each other or what their colleagues are doing, Ishimaru said.

The reporters periodically cross the China-North Korea border to deliver what they have recorded. The materials include digital images of people who foreigners would rarely have access to — a woman making merchandise at home to sell at a market, homeless children looking for food in a dump, clothing regulation enforcers on the lookout for youngsters wearing unacceptable fashions such as tight-fitting pants, and young soldiers scavenging for food from a farm.

“The reporters are taking risks because they have a strong will to let the outside world know the reality in North Korea and inspire a desire to improve the situation there,” Ishimaru said.

Some of the recent materials cover the paralyzing effect of the November 2009 currency redenomination in which North Korea slashed the value of the won, setting the exchange rate between the old and new bills at 100 to 1 and imposing restrictions on the quantity of old bills that could be swapped for new ones. The move was widely seen as the state’s attempt to reinforce control of the economy.

The magazine shows one of those affected, a woman identified as “Ms. Kang,” who is in her 50s and makes a living selling general goods such as plates and bowls procured in China.

Shortly before the devaluation, “Ms. Kang” reportedly took out a loan of 10 million won, worth about $3,000 at the time, from an acquaintance. Now she struggles with a huge debt as no currency trader will exchange her old won into Chinese yuan, leaving her unable to buy goods in China. She is also unable to convert them into the new won beyond the 100,000-won limit.

“Because the Americans don’t know very much about North Korea, we wanted to include some introductory pieces that explain people’s everyday lives there, including the impact the market is having,” said Bon Fleming, an American editor who translated the bulk of the material for the English edition.

Suzy Kim, assistant professor of Korean history at Rutgers University, said she was most impressed by the abundance of visual footage in the magazine. But she added, “Many of the stories in the magazine are anecdotal — there is as yet no way to collect enough information to present a statistical context for the stories.”

In order to make up for its heavy dependence on a handful of reporters, Kim suggested that the magazine can improve by incorporating a wider variety of views about North Korea from people with different backgrounds, experiences and opinions.

Ishimaru said North Korea is a nation changing fast and so are its people, contrary to the oft-reported images of brainwashed citizens. One of the forces behind the change is the increasing availability of digital media, a trend fueled by the influx of Chinese electronics, including VCD players, which are much more affordable than DVD players, he said.

Illegal copies of South Korean TV dramas crossed the border into North Korea en masse around 2003 via ethnic Korean communities in northeastern China, where watching South Korean satellite broadcasting programs became popular in the late 1990s, according to Ishimaru.

“What allowed the North Korean government to exert tight control over the daily lives of its people was the state’s food rationing system, which taught everyone to remain submissive as long as they were fed,” Ishimaru said.

Since the collapse of the public distribution system in the famine of the 1990s, however, people have been forced to fend for themselves and have become less afraid of the authorities, he said.

“You can no longer talk about North Korea without talking about the expansion of the market economy there,” Ishimaru said.

“The question is not about food — it’s whether North Korea will open up to the outside world or not.”

Previous posts about Rimjingang can be found here.

I have added Rimjingang to my list of North Korea media outlets all of which can be found here.

Read the full sotry here:
Undercover magazine on North Korea launches English edition
Mainichi Daily News
10/28/2010

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DPRK defectors in Japanese “adult entertainment” enterprise

Friday, October 22nd, 2010

According to the Yomiuri Shimbun:

North Korean defectors appear to be traveling to [Japan] from South Korea to earn an income in the adult entertainment industry, with a series of arrests having been made in connection with two adult businesses in Ueno, Tokyo.

A woman who defected from North Korean was deported from Japan to South Korea in mid-October after being convicted of illegally operating an adult salon in Ueno, according to Metropolitan Police Department sources.

The woman fled North Korea for South Korea in July 2004, but she came to Japan in April 2006 after experiencing financial difficulties in South Korea.

She opened the adult salon in January last year, and was arrested in May this year, the police said.

According to MPD sources, the woman sent part of her earnings from the shop to North Korea.

Nine other defectors from North Korea, all women, have also been arrested, the MPD said.

One, a massage parlor manager in her 40s, is an acquaintance of the deported woman. Investigative sources said she was arrested Oct. 4 on suspicion of violating the Adult Entertainment Businesses Law by operating the parlor in an area of Ueno where such businesses are prohibited.

The other eight women worked at the two Ueno businesses, and were arrested on suspicion of breaking the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Law by working in violation of their visa status.

After defecting from North Korea, all 10 women entered a facility in South Korea that helps defectors settle in that nation, and all obtained status as South Korean nationals, according to the police.

However, the women found it hard to find work in South Korea. One was quoted by the police as saying: “We defected from North Korea because our lives there were difficult, but our lives didn’t improve in South Korea. In Japan, we earned a lot, partly thanks to the strong yen.”

The deported woman made profits of about 35 million yen at her salon between its opening and April this year. The woman said she had sent part of the income to relatives in North Korea, according to the police.

The MPD believes word that good money can be made by starting an adult entertainment business in Japan has been spreading among North Korean defectors.

The arrested massage parlor manager, meanwhile, is rumored to have once been a member of North Korea’s secret police, the MPD said.

The MPD intends to thoroughly investigate the woman, who comes from a northern region of North Korea and visited Japan a few years ago, by exchanging information with South Korean police.

The majority of North Korean defectors seek asylum in South Korea after fleeing the country, often by crossing the Tumen River that runs along the North Korea-China border.

According to South Korea’s Unification Ministry, about 20,000 North Korean defectors currently live in South Korea.

However, many cannot assimilate to life in South Korea. Defectors’ employment rate is about 70 percent of that of the general public.

The Japanese government has accepted as North Korean defectors about 200 Korean-Japanese and their families who went to North Korea on its “return to the homeland” project, which began in 1959.

Most North Korean defectors were born and raised in North Korea, however.

Thought the exact number is not known, it is believed many North Korean defectors have visited Japan as South Koreans after obtaining South Korean nationality.

Also in the Korea Times:

Two pimps were arrested for trafficking female North Korean refugees in Japan and forcing them to engage in prostitution there, police said Friday. Police also arrested 13 female North Korean defectors for selling sex in red-light districts in Tokyo.

According to the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, the arrested female pimps, surnamed Tak and Lee, ran a massage parlor in Ueno since November 2008. The two are also North Korean defectors to the South.

The women defectors were forced to sell sex for 6,000 to 10,000 yen per hour, it said. The pimps racked up more than 1.1 billion won in illegal gains.

Investigators said they coaxed jobless female defectors here with the promise that they could make more than 15 million won a month in Japan.

Some of the trafficked women said during questioning they engaged in the illegal business to cover fees needed to take their family members still in the North out of the poverty-stricken state.

“This was the first case to catch a group of prostitutes and pimps, all of whom are North Korean,” a police officer said.

A growing number of female defectors leave for Japan voluntarily in recent years to enter into the sex industry there, a desperate move to escape from financial hardship in the South, the officer said.

Read the full stories here:
N. Korea defectors in vice busts / Arrested women drawn to Japan by earning potential in adult industry
Daily Yomuri
10/24/2010

North Korean defectors caught selling sex in Japan
Korea Times
Park Si-soo
10/22/2010

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More than 100 DPRK defectors in Japan

Thursday, October 21st, 2010

According to KBS:

Japan’s State Secretary for Foreign Affairs Takeaki Matsumoto says there are more than 100 North Korean escapees in Japan.

Matsumoto made the assessment on Thursday in response to a question posed by Democratic Party of Japan legislator Yosihu Arita during a meeting of a special House of Councillors committee on Japanese abductees.

Arita said a dozen North Korean escapees are under the protection of Japan’s diplomatic mission in China. He said there are reports that some of the escapees have been unable to leave China for nearly two years and urged the Japanese government to promptly address the matter.

In response, Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara said Tokyo will seek the early departure of the escapees in line with the interests of related countries.

Read the full story here:
‘More than 100 NK Escapees Have Entered Japan’
KBS
10/21/2010

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DPRK seeks Japanese luxury goods

Thursday, October 7th, 2010

According to KBS:

A Japanese daily says North Korean officials have regularly bribed Japanese traders since Tokyo banned the export of luxury goods to North Korea in June of last year.

The Sankei Shimbun says North Korean officials in charge of importing luxury goods invited Japanese businesspeople to posh restaurants in places such as Dalian, China, several times and induced them into making illegal shipments.

Sankei said the North would first wire a lump sum of money in the several 100-million-won range to Japanese traders and then place orders for specific products afterwards.

In Japan, six smuggling cases of luxury goods to North Korea via China have been uncovered since June of last year.

Read the full story here:
Sankei: NK Bribes Japanese Firms to Import Luxury Goods
KBS
10/7/2010

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Japanese businessman arrested for exporting pianos to DPRK

Friday, September 17th, 2010

According to the Mainichi Daily News (Japan):

The president of a motorcycle sales company in Hiroshima was arrested Thursday for allegedly exporting pianos to North Korea in violation of Japanese government trade sanctions.

Hiroshima and Hyogo police suspect Yutaka Oyama, 60, exported 22 used upright pianos from Kobe port to North Korea through China’s Dalian on Nov. 5, 2008, without obtaining permissions from the economy, trade and industry minister.

Oyama has admitted to exporting the pianos during interviews with Kyodo News, saying he had “no other work” amid an economic downturn.

The police raided his office and home in April and confiscated items such as a personal computer and a mobile phone.

Japan in October 2006 banned imports from North Korea and exports to the country of luxury goods, including musical instruments, under economic sanctions designed to penalize Pyongyang for the nuclear test it conducted earlier that month.

The sanctions were strengthened in June last year with all exports banned, in response to another nuclear test the previous month and the North’s past abductions of Japanese nationals.

Read the full story here:
Motorcycle dealer arrested over illegal export to North Korea
Mainichi Daily News
9/16/2010

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Japanese spy satellite breaks down

Monday, August 30th, 2010

According to the Global Times:

One of Japan’s four spy satellites orbiting Earth, in part to monitor activities in North Korea, has broken down, Japanese media quoted government sources as saying Saturday.

According to the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper, Japan’s Cabinet Satellite Intelligence Center said it detected a glitch in the satellite’s radar system Monday and began remote operations to restart the system.

However, an official of the center said the outlook for recovery was “extremely grim,” the newspaper said.

The No. 2 radar satellite, which was put into orbit in February 2007, appeared to have run into trouble related to its electrical power supply, the center said. The satellite was designed to work in space for five years and should have completed its mission in 2012.

The remaining three satellites, all optical ones, are working to minimize the effect of the radar satellite’s malfunction, the Kyodo News Agency quoted a defense ministry source as saying.

Japan decided to deploy spy satellites to keep an eye on developments in North Korea after Pyongyang launched a ballistic missile in 1998, part of which flew over the Japanese archipelago and fell into the Pacific Ocean.

A set of four satellites – two radar orbiters and two optical orbiters – can gather imagery of any place in the world within a 24-hour period while in their polar orbit at an altitude of 400- 600 kilometers, the paper said.

Intelligence-gathering satellites are a precious source of information for Japan and “serve as a deterrent by monitoring any kind of activity,” one high-ranking defense official told the paper.

The paper also noted that the breakdown has occurred at the most inopportune time, as North Korea continues to develop missile and nuclear programs and as China expands its military capabilities.

Read the full story here:
Japanese spy satellite over North Korea breaks down
Global Times
8/30/2010

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New Koguryo tombs discovered in Pyongyang

Monday, August 16th, 2010

According to the Choson Ilbo:

Academics from North Korea and Japan have unearthed a large tumulus from the Koguryo period in Pyongyang, providing valuable material for studying the history of ancient East Asia, Japan’s Kyodo news agency said Saturday. About 4.5 km away from the downtown Pyongyang, the tomb was discovered during construction work in Tongsan-dong, the Lelang District of the Koguryo era and is presumed to have been created around the 5th century.

According to the news agency, the mural paintings in the tomb show a man in horn-shaped headgear on horseback, a procession of men holding flags on armored horses, and warriors with swords. The antechamber and main chamber at the back are connected with a narrow passage, while the bones of a man and two women have been found in the back chamber. The tomb has some unique features, including the antechamber’s arched ceilings with three layers of triangular props and the mound created by piling up alternate layers of lime, charcoal and red clay to cover the stone chambers beneath, the report said. The mound is 35 m in diameter and 8 m high.

Pyongyang plans to register the tomb with UNESCO as a World Heritage site. Japanese scholars said the tomb’s murals are comparable to those of Tokhung-ri Tomb in Nampo, South Pyongan Province, which is included in the Complex of Koguryo Tombs inscribed in the World Heritage List in 2004.

The team also found relics offering a glimpse of how sophisticated Koguryo culture was, such as gold and silver ornaments, tiger-shaped pottery, bronze coins and nails for coffins. The celadon candlestick is the first of its kind to be excavated in the North, the report added.

The team consists of researchers with the Archaeological Institute of the North’s Academy of Social Sciences and Japanese scholars sent by Kyoto news agency including Prof. Masahiro Saotome, an archaeologist at the University of Tokyo, and Shigeo Aoki, a Cyber University professor specializing in the preservation of historic remains. Saotome said the tomb “was unearthed in an area where experts believed there would be no Koguryo mural tombs.”

Ahn Hwi-joon, a Korean art historian and professor emeritus at Seoul National University, echoed him saying, “It is the first time that Koguryo tomb murals have been unearthed in the area once controlled by the Chinese Han Dynasty Commander of Lelang. They are especially valuable as they were executed in the late fourth to the fifth centuries, immediately after Koguryo incorporated Lelang.”

Read the full story here:
N.Korean-Japanese Team Finds Koguryo Tomb in Pyongyang
Choson Ilbo
8/16/2010

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Chongryon losing tax breaks

Friday, August 13th, 2010

According to Asahi:

The General Association of Korean Residents in Japan (Chongryon), the main pro-North Korea organization in Japan, is rapidly losing its tax-exempt status on facilities throughout the country.

On Wednesday, the government released the property tax collection practices for Chongryon-related facilities at 130 local governments throughout Japan.

According to officials of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, no local governments completely exempt Chongryon from paying property taxes on its facilities.

Kushiro in Hokkaido ended its total property tax exemption last fiscal year. It was the last community to grant Chongryon a complete tax exemption. The ministry began its annual surveys in fiscal 2005.

Other municipalities have also toughened property tax collection on Chongryon-related facilities.

Nagoya ended its partial exemption, while the cities of Kyoto, Okayama, Kiryu in Gunma Prefecture and Nishinomiya in Hyogo Prefecture, all effectively raised property taxes on Chongryon facilities.

There are now 94 local governments that no longer reduce property tax amounts for Chongryon facilities, while 30 still have a partial exemption. The remaining six local governments are reviewing their tax policies for the organization.

Local governments previously exempted property taxes on Chongryon’s headquarters and local chapters on the grounds that those facilities were of a public nature.

However, local governments began reviewing their practices after the Supreme Court declared a tax reduction measure by the Kumamoto city government illegal in November 2007.

Among other things, Chongryon serves as North Korea’s de facto embassy in Japan.

Read the full story here:
Pro-North Korea group losing tax breaks
Asahi Shimbun
8/13/2010

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