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Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department yesterday searched the offices of organizations under the General Association of North Korean Residents in Japan (Chongryon) on suspicion of links to a man arrested last month on charges of illegally exporting computers to North Korea.
Law enforcement officials conducted the search after concluding that there was just cause to suspect that three institutions affiliated with Chongryon (a publishing house, a travel agency and the ‘Chosun-Japan Association of Science and Technology’) had links with Lee Soon Ki, who was charged on February 7th with unlawfully exporting goods in violation of foreign currency rules.
Lee has accepted that he smuggled 100 second-hand notebook computers to North Korea through China in March, 2009 without the permission of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.
According to the police, Lee exported the goods worth approx. $11,000 through a PC sales company he ran called ‘Popular Tech’.
Later the same day, a number of Chongryon officials protested against the case in front of Metropolitan Police Department headquarters, calling it “political repression.” Chongryon also released a statement, similarly asserting, “Performing a forced search of an affiliated organization which has no relation whatsoever to the incident that happen on the 7th is illegal and unjust. This is an unheard of level of political oppression.”
