According to the Yonhap News Agency—South Korea’s leading news wire—North Korea has donated US$2million to a pro-Pyongyang group in Japan.
The educational funds were given on behalf of Kim Jong-il to a group of Korean residents in Japan that are loyal to the communist regime. According to the Korean Central News Agency, Kim Jong-Il “sent ¥205 million as educational aid fund and stipends to the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan for the democratic national education of the children of Koreans in Japan.”
Yonhap states that there are currently 700,000 Koreans living in Japan—about 500,000 of whom are pro-South Korea, with the remaining 200,000 believed to be loyal to Pyongyang.
“North Korea regards the pro-Pyongyang residents’ group in Japan as its major overseas support base,” Yonhap says. However, international aid groups say these donations come at a time when North Korea faces its worst food shortages in years due to two years of flood damage and soaring food prices.
This story has yet to make it into the Japanese media but when it does , expect raised voices of concern, especially by the right-wing media, that North Korean communist propaganda is seeping into Japanese soil.
Yonhap:
http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/northkorea/2008/04/12/8/0401000000AEN200...
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