The General Association of Korean Residents in Japan[2] (Chae Ilbon Chosŏnin Ch'ongryŏnhaphoe in Korean or Zai-Nihon Chōsenjin Sōrengōkai in Japanese), abbreviated to Chongryon[2] (Korean: 총련, Hanja: 總聯) or Chōsen Sōren (Japanese: 朝鮮総連), is one of two main organisations for Zainichi (or Jaeil) Koreans (long term Korean residents in Japan), and has close ties to North Korea (DPRK). As there are no diplomatic relations between the two states, it has functioned as North Korea's de facto embassy in Japan.[3][4]
Chongryon members primarily consist of those who have retained their nationality registration of Joseon (Japanese: Chōsen), as opposed to those who have chosen to take up either Japanese or South Korean nationality. Joseon nationality was a legal definition that the Japanese government developed in the aftermath of World War II, when the government of the Korean peninsula was in an undetermined state. Prior to the end of World War II, Korea was administered by the Japanese government as being part of Japan, thus the legal nationality of Koreans, both in Japan and in Korea, was Japanese.
The other main organization is called Mindan, the Korean Residents Union In Japan, and consists of Zainichi Koreans who have adopted South Korean nationality. Currently, among 610,000 Korean residents in Japan who have not adopted Japanese nationality, 25 percent are members of Chongryon, and 65 percent are members of Mindan. Chongryon's strong links to North Korea, its allegiance to the North Korean ideology and its opposition to integration of Koreans into Japanese society have made it the more controversial of the two organisations in Japan.
Chongryon's headquarters are in Chiyoda, Tokyo, and there are prefectural and regional head offices and branches throughout Japan. However, the organization has run into severe financial trouble, with debts of over US$750 million, and has been ordered by court in 2012 to dispose of most of its assets, including its Tokyo headquarters.[5]
Background and historyMain article: Zainichi Koreans
Long term ethnic Korean residents in Japan primarily consist of those, and descendants of, ethnic Koreans who settled in Japan as:
Migrants during Japan's rule over Korea (1910–1945)
Conscripted labourers during the Second World War
Post-WWII refugees, especially from Jeju island escaping the 1948 Jeju massacre.
A 1953 government survey revealed that 93% were from the southern half of the Korean peninsula.
Until 1945, ethnic Koreans were Japanese nationals. The end of the Second World War left the nationality status of Koreans in an ambiguous position, as no functional nation existed on the Korean Peninsula. Their nationality was provisionally registered under the name of Joseon (Chōsen in Japanese, 朝鮮, 조선), the old name of undivided Korea.
The 1948 declaration of independence by both South and North Korea made Joseon a defunct nation. Those with Joseon nationality were allowed to re-register their nationality to a South Korean one; however the same did not apply to North Korea due to the fact that Japan only recognises South Korea as the legitimate government of Korea, so supporters of the North retained their Joseon nationality.
Ethnic Koreans in Japan established the Association of Koreans in Japan in 1945, which followed a socialist ideology, and was banned in 1949 by the order of Allied occupation army. The United Democratic Front of Korea in Japan was established in 1951, which was banned due to suspected involvement in the 1952 May Day riots.
In 1952, the North Korean leader Kim Il-Sung called on the socialist zainichi Korean movement to be coordinated in close contact with the North Korean government, and to fight, not for a socialist revolution in Japan, but for the socialist reunification of the Korean peninsula.
Chongryon was established on May 25, 1955 by Han Duk-su, who was an activist for leftist labor movements in Japan. (The pro-South Mindan had already branched off from the main organisation in 1946).
In the late 1950s, Chongryon conducted a campaign to persuade Zainichi Koreans to migrate to North Korea, which it hailed as a socialist "Paradise on Earth". The campaign was vehemently opposed by Mindan which organised hunger strikes and train obstructions. Some 87,000 Zainichi Koreans and about 6000 Japanese spouses moved to the North. This experience was detailed in Kang Chol-Hwan's autobiography Aquariums of Pyongyang. According to a defector, himself a former returnee, many petitioned to be returned to Japan and in response were sent to political prison camps. Japanese research puts the number of Zainichi Korean returnees condemned to prison camps at around 10,000.[6][7] In 1990 Su-to Ha, former vice chief of organization for Chongryon who was expelled in 1972 for demanding democratic reforms, led a rally in Tokyo of 500 to protest against North Korea's human rights violations, in which protesters accused North Korea of holding the ex-Zainichi returnees captive in order to siphon money off remittances from their relatives in Japan.
For a long time, Chongryon enjoyed unofficial immunity from searches and investigations, partly out of respect for its role as North Korea's de facto embassy, and partly due to its power as a political pressure group[citation needed]. However, escalating tensions between Japan and North Korea over a number of issues, namely its nuclear weapons programme and its abduction of Japanese nationals has led to a resurgence of public animosity against Chongryon due to its active support of the Pyongyang regime[citation needed]. Acts which Chongryon officials are suspected of include illicit transfer of funds to North Korea, espionage, and smuggling of technology and missile parts[citation needed].
Since allegations of Pyongyang's nuclear weapons programme first surfaced in the early 1990s, Chongryon has frequently reported being targeted by hate mail, malicious phone calls, and numerous incidents[citation needed]. Chongryon facilities have also frequently been sites of protests by Japanese right-wing groups[citation needed].
There have been numerous incidents of students of Chongryon schools, identifiable by their uniforms based on traditional Korean costumes, suffering verbal abuse. Furthermore, around May and June 1994 there was a series of physical assaults on Chongryon students in which their uniforms were cut; this was reported heavily in the Japanese media and triggered a Ministry of Justice investigation[citation needed].
In 1998, a petrol bomb was thrown at Chongryon's headquarters in Tokyo, causing minor damage[citation needed].
In June 2003, a shot was fired into a Chongryon warehouse in Niigata, hitting cargo waiting to be loaded onto Mangyongbong-92[citation needed].
In October 2006 in the aftermath of North Korea's first nuclear test, a suspected arson attack damaged a bamboo grove inside Chongryon's school in Mito. A 15 year old female student was pelted with eggs at the school the same day[citation needed].
The Japanese authorities have recently started to crack down on Chongryon activities, moves usually criticised by Chongryon as acts of political suppression.[31]
The first raid on Chongryon facilities was in 1994, when a rally held in Osaka by Rescue the North Korean People! (RENK), a Japanese citizens group set up to help refugees and demand democracy and human rights in North Korea, was attacked and broken up by a 100-strong mob. Police investigations revealed that the disruption was orchestrated by Chongryon.[32]
In November 2001, police raided the Tokyo headquarters of Chongryon and its Tokyo regional office as part of an investigation into alleged embezzlement by one of it senior officials. This followed an arrest of Kang Young Kwan, 66, a member of Chongryon's central standing committee and a former head of its financial bureau, among other Chongryon officials, who admitted diverting $6.5 million on behalf of Chongryon from the Tokyo Chogin, a credit union set up to serve pro-North Korean residents which failed in 1999. About 400 Chongroyn supporters scuffled with police after they gathered in protest at what they called an act of political suppression and racial discrimination.[33][34]
In 2002, Shotaro Tochigi, deputy head of the Public Security Intelligence Agency told a session of the House of Representatives Financial Affairs Committee that the agency is investigating Chongryon for suspected illicit transfers of funds to the North.[35]
In 2003, a North Korean defector made a statement to the US Senate committee stating that more than 90% of the parts used by North Korea to construct its missiles were brought from Japan aboard Mangyongbong-92, a Chongryon-operated ship which is the only regular direct link between North Korea and Japan.[36]
In 2003, The Associated Press reported that Japanese authorities are preparing to charge a 72-year old former senior member of Chongryon who was engaged in espionage activities for using false identity. It was claimed that espionage instructions were relayed to him by the captain of Mangyongbong-92. Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi told reporters "We must watch (the vessel) closely lest it be used for crime."[37]
In July 2003, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government reversed a decision made in 1972 by the Marxist Governor Ryokichi Minobe to exempt Chongryon from property tax. Chongryon refused to pay, resulting in seizure of three Chongryon properties.[38]
In March 2006, following a ruling by Fukuoka High Court, the Internal Affairs Ministry instructed prefectural governments across Japan to review any property tax exemptions on Chongryon properties. Some local authorities resisted the move[citation needed].
In March 2006, police raided six Chongryon-related facilities in an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the June 1980 disappearance of one of the alleged abductees, Tadaaki Hara. Police spokesman said that the head of Chongryon at the time is suspected of co-operating in his kidnap.[39]
In May 2006, Chongryon and the pro-South Mindan agreed to reconcile, only for the agreement to break down the following month due to Mindan's distrust of Chongryon. North Korea's missile tests in July 2006 have deepened the divide, with Chongryon refusing to condemn the missile tests, expressing only its regret that the Japanese government has suspended the operation of the Mangyongbong-92. Outraged senior Mindan officials joined mainstream Japanese politicians and media in sharply criticizing Chongryon's silence over the matter[citation needed].
In November 2006, police raided the Chongryon's Tokyo headquarters in an investigation behind an attempt to illegally export 60 bags of intravenous solutions to North Korea. The solution was intercepted by Japanese customs as they were taken aboard Mangyongbong-92. It was reported that the solutions could have been used to make biological weapons, a claim denied by Chongryon. Crowds of Chongryon supporters tried to block access to the building, leading to deployment of riot police[citation needed].
In Feb 2007, police in Hokkaido raided ten locations linked to Chongryon, including its Hokkaido head office in Sapporo and a famous mutton yakiniku restaurant owned by a senior Chongryon official in Susukino, Sapporo, over alleged tax evasion amounting to tens of millions of yen. Four people, including the restaurant owner and a senior official of Chongryon's Sapporo chamber of commerce and industry, were arrested[citation needed].
Also in Feb 2007, Police raided several locations including Chongryon's Hyogo headquarters in Kobe, and arrested three people, including Song Gi Hwan, who heads the accounting division of Chongryon's Hyogo chamber of commerce and industry, over alleged unlicensed accounting. Riot police scuffled with a crowd of Chongryon supporters who gathered in protest. Footage of the raids were later released by Chongryon.
On 3 March 2007, thousands of Chongryon members staged a rally in Hibiya Park in protest against police investigations into the organisation and bullying of schoolchildren, which they called "political suppression and human rights abuses" by the Japanese authorities. The protesters, who numbered between 3000 (according to local media) and 7000 (according to Chongryon), staged a 2.9 km-long march wielding posters of the North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il. Chongryon's number two, Nam Sung-U was quoted as saying "Japan's violations of human rights against the DPRK and Koreans in Japan cannot be allowed, no matter what". The Tokyo Metropolitan Government attempted to ban the protest fearing violence but they were overruled by a court ruling. Riot police scuffled with Japanese ultranationalist groups who had gathered in counterprotest resulting in one arrest[citation needed].
In June 2007, it was reported that Chongryon attempted to sell its main headquarters to Shigetake Ogata, (ex-head of the Public Security Intelligence Agency who now leads an investment firm) due to financial troubles and tensions with the Japanese government, however creditors moved to block the sale in court and, according to North Korea's official news service article of June 22, 2007, the courts granted a Japanese collection agency the right to dispose of the property.[40]