Word: chongryun
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TOKYO: In a shocking departure from Japan's usual civility, ethnic-Korean schoolchildren are being victimized by racist assaults and taunts, apparently in reprisal for North Korea's intransigence over nuclear inspections. Last Monday evening, a 17-year-old female student at a Tokyo high school run by Chongryun, a North Korean residents' association, was riding home when a young man tried to push her off her bicycle. The assailant then slashed her school uniform with a pair of scissors. That assault was one of more than 120 verbal or physical attacks reported in Japan by Chongryun since April. Though...
...Japanese are worried that an attempt to curb Chongryun might spark violent reprisals, even sabotage. At the least, they expect angry street protests charging that Japan is once again oppressing Koreans -- an accusation that stings because many of the 1.5 million Koreans in Japan at the end of World War II were conscripted laborers, and those who stayed still suffer discrimination. In the 1950s and '60s, many believed that Kim Il Sung's North Korea, which was faring better than the chaotic South, was the best bet for Korea's future. About 40% of the 600,000 Koreans who stayed...
...Chongryun has since become a substantial force. It has built 140 schools and a university for the Korean community, where 20,000 young people study the basics -- and the wisdom of Kim Il Sung. The association has established a powerful credit union and launched numerous publications. By the mid-1970s, Chongryun Koreans were starting to prosper; they now control most of Japan's pachinko parlors. Former Chongryun officials say North Korea made it clear that the well-being of loved ones back home depended on how often -- and how much -- their relatives in Japan were willing to contribute...
Though association officials deny the charges, Japanese officials claim that the group was integral to North Korean intelligence operations through the 1970s. In the early '80s, the officials say, Chongryun shifted focus to concentrate on siphoning foreign exchange into the North...
...none of this assistance guaranteed the safety of relatives in Korea. An unknown number wound up in concentration camps or before firing squads. As families in Japan have learned of their fate, Chongryun's hold over its members has loosened. A small but vocal group of former members now openly attacks the organization, despite threats from its hierarchy...