National News

Pro-Pyongyang Koreans terrorized in Niigata; bomb scare targets bank

NIIGATA (Kyodo) - A shot was fired into a local facility of the pro-Pyongyang General Association of Korean Residents in Japan (Chongryun) and a suspected bomb was found near a credit union linked to North Korean residents, police said July 30.

Police acted after the daily Asahi Shimbun received a call from a man who claimed to be a member of the Kenkoku Giyugun (Patriotic Corps for Building the Nation). He told the newspaper's head office in Tokyo that a gun had been fired at the Chongryun office and a bomb was planted at the local Korean bank.

A similar phone call was made to the local daily Niigata Nippo. Both callers spoke in standard Japanese without local accents and sounded young, sources said.

Niigata Prefectural Police then found a paper bag containing an apparent explosive device near the Niigata branch of Hana Credit Union, a local bank serving pro-Pyongyang Korean residents here.

The bag contained a sealed stainlesssteel thermos containing a gas canister. A timing device incorporating a kitchen timer was wired to the thermos.

Also, evidence was found that a bullet was fired into a warehouse adjacent to the Chongryun office. The office is located close to the pier used to serve the North Korean passenger-cargo ferry Mangyongbong-92, which Japanese authorities say was used for smuggling and espionage activities. Chongryun allegedly was involved in such activities, although members of the group have consistently denied the charges

This is the latest incident involving harassment and threats against pro-Pyongyang Korean residents and Chongryun-linked facilities that have continued since North Korea's admission last September that it had kidnapped more than a dozen Japanese nationals in the 1970s and 1980s.

Shukan ST: Aug. 8, 2003

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