North Korean residences in Japan

An ultra-right activist is stopped by security police officers after chanting anti-North Korean slogans with a bull horn at the gate of the headquarters of the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan, or Chongryon

"The atmosphere in Japan is now the worst," said So, director of international affairs at Chongryon, an umbrella group acting as de facto embassy for tens of thousands of ethnic Koreans who live in Asia's richest capitalist society yet see North Korea as home

"Koreans who have nothing to do with the nuclear test have become the victim," Chongryon said in a statement. "The ratcheting up of sanctions severely threatens the rights and lifestyle of Koreans in Japan."

Stop the crap, it is a shame that the ultranationalists do such a stupid thing.

There are some 600,000 ethnic Koreans among 127 million Japanese, most of them descendants of people who moved here voluntarily or by force during Japan's 1910-1945 colonial rule of the Korean peninsula. About 200,000 are affiliated with Pyongyang.

This IS misleading. The majority moved here voluntarily.

All Koreans in Japan face discrimination in Japan. All Koreans were stripped of their Japanese citizenship after World War II and those in Japan found themselves in a society that often looked down on them as former colonial subjects.

This IS misleading. Japanese government and Korea government had an agreement that the citizenship of Korean residents would be transferred to Korea, and the Korean association did not protest.

Chongryon functions like an embassy because Japan and North Korea have no diplomatic ties. Its walled headquarters in Tokyo is guarded by police. Inside, visitors are greeted by a giant mural of North Korea's founding father Kim Il Sung and his son, current leader Kim Jong Il.

That is why it gets tax exemption but when it comes to North Korean nuclear test, it says the association has little to do with it. The association should have declared that it was against the test.

Since then, there have been 130 cases of harassment and intimidation against North Korean students, Chongryon said. The pace quickened after the nuclear test, with two arson attacks against Chongryon facilities, including the bamboo incident in the city of Mito.

If this is true, it is unforgivable.

Loyalty toward Chongryon started fading in the 1990s when North Korea's economy flat-lined and famines killed an estimated 2 million people. Then, in 2002, Kim Jong Il shocked the world by admitting North Korean agents had been kidnapping Japanese citizens to train communist spies.

It was crucial that the members of the association were involved in the kidnapping.

In any case, it is a disgrace that in the time like this, ethnic Korean residents have to suffer the hardships because they are ethic Korean. If the ultranationlists who are causing troubles, their activity should be regulated severely for the sake of
Japan's honor.

Murmur
murmur