Koreans in Japan pay the price for Pyongyang's belligerence

Ethnic North Korean residents of Japan say they are experiencing an increase in violence and threats after a recent series of ballistic missile launches by the North.

Most of the incidents have targeted children who attend schools operated by the General Association of Korean Residents of Japan, also called the "Chosen Soren," which is a de facto embassy representing interests of North Koreans who are still loyal to the regime in Pyongyang.

As North Korea continues its weapons testing, school officials have called on the Japanese government to increase security around North Korean schools and act against anyone threatening or harassing children. 

"It is getting worse again," said Choe Kwan-ik, managing editor of the North Korean community newspaper the Choson Sinbo.

"Korean school children wear uniforms that are different from those worn at Japanese schools and this makes them easy targets for verbal abuse and even physical attacks. Some of our children have been kicked and punched," Choe told DW.  

According to Choe, children have reported harassment mainly from adult men. Some were told to "get out of Japan."

On October 4, North Korea launched a medium-range ballistic missile that passed over northern Japan, triggering the automatic J-Alert warning in towns and cities in the northern Hokkaido, Aomori and Miyagi prefectures. Residents were instructed to take shelter indoors in case the missile came down, although it eventually crashed harmlessly into the Pacific Ocean to the east of Japan.  

The same day, Tokyo police reported that a man confronted a Korean student on a train, stamping on the boy's foot.

The Asahi newspaper reported another incident involving a man entering an elementary school operated by the Chosen Soren and threatening a teacher and a student over North Korean missile tests.

Police said at least nine other similar incidents, while countless posts appeared on social media sites targeting the North Korean community, including calls for pro-Pyongyang schools to be "destroyed."

  

Regime in North Korea takes advantage of tension 

Senior Chosen Soren officials and representatives of a Japanese human rights group focusing on ethnic minorities subsequently visited the Justice Ministry and called on authorities to protect North Korean residents in Japan.  

In a press conference after the meeting, Chong Chan-gil, president of the Tokyo Korean Junior and High School Teachers' Union, said nobody stepped forward to help the students who were being attacked, even though many people were around.

"We call on the government to take steps before an even more serious assault occurs," he added.

North Korean state media has condemned the incidents, with an article published by the Korea Central News Agency (KCNA) accusing "Japanese reactionaries" of "inciting military tension" and arousing anti-North Korean public opinion through the media.

In an article, KCNA accused Japan of making "innocent children an object of entirely unjust discrimination and persecution."

North Korean immigrant Chung Hyon-suk told DW that she is relieved that her children are no longer students, as pupils at North Korean schools in Japan have always been popular targets for intimidation.  

"These children are powerless and weak so it is not very brave for adults to threaten or attack them," she said.  

"But I guessed after these latest launches that there would be some sort of backlash," said Chung, who recalls that after a similar crisis on the Peninsula, someone painted the words: "North Koreans live here. Be careful," on her family's home.  

"It's a complicated relationship between the two countries, but I just wish we could find a way to be friends and get along," she said.  

Japan's colonial history

The North Korean community in Japan is connected to the legacy of Tokyo's colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula between 1910 and the end of World War II in 1945.

Thousands of Koreans were brought to Japan to work for Japanese companies during the war. After Japan's surrender, many opted to remain, their allegiances on the newly divided peninsula depending on where their hometowns were.

North Koreans maintaining a strong connection with the cult of personality surrounding the ruling Kim regime in Pyongyang elicits suspicion in Japan, with organizations like Chosen Soren closely monitored by authorities for its ties with the regime.

As well as funding the leadership in Pyongyang, critics claim North Koreans in Japan have been involved in efforts to obtain research and technology to assist missile and nuclear programs and assisted in the abduction of Japanese nationals by the North's agents.  

Chosen Soren operates a network of around 70 schools across Japan with around 10,000 pupils, a sharp decline from the 40,000 who attended the schools in the peak years of the 1970s.

The schools stick rigidly to a North Korean curriculum and pupils are taught to revere the Kim dynasty as their leaders. Chosen Soren also operates a university, with many graduates going on to work at companies linked to the organization, such as travel, trading or media firms.  

Choe said that while there has been an increase in incidents targeting North Koreans in recent months, discrimination is a problem that the community here has always had to live with.  

"Every time the situation changes on the Peninsula, the situation here gets worse," he said.

Edited by: Wesley Rahn