[imText1]When Chongryon (General Association of North Korean Residents in Japan), whose 55th anniversary is next year, took on the role of supporter to the Kim Jong Il regime instead of being an advocate for Korean residents in Japan, the number of people quitting the organization increased. Since Korean residents are neglecting it as a result of knowing North Korea¡¯s true nature, Chongryon is facing a critical moment; whether to keep or discard the organization.

This crisis is the inevitable result of excessively pursuing strategic businesses on North Korea¡¯s behalf, rather than advocating for the rights of Korean residents in Japan.

Chongryon has worked for a long time as a North Korean branch office in Japan, for idolization through education based on Korean nationalism; for assisting with Pyongyang¡¯s overseas strategies and espionage; and for remittances and material aid.

Over half a century, Chongryon has passed through stability, prosperity, stagnation and now rapid deterioration. The time of stability and prosperity was from the late 1950s through the early 1960s, when it started receiving aid and scholarships for education and ran the Homecoming Project targeting Korean residents in Japan. Then there was a Brezhnevian period of stagnation, and then, from 1970 when the Homecoming Project was halted, the deterioration period began.

In the 1990s, Kim Il Sung¡¯s death and North Korea¡¯s famine brought weakness to Chongryon as well, and in the 2000s, due to North Korea¡¯s nuclear weapons development and the abduction issue, it now stands on a precipice.

¡ß The Homecoming Project gave impetus to the dissolution of Chongryon

The turning point in the decline of Chongryon was the Homecoming Project in the 1960s. Under the slogan, ¡°Let¡¯s go back to the fatherland!¡± many Korean residents were persuaded to return to the North, and once there were held hostage for the rest of their lives, without the option of leaving.

From 1959 to 1984, the project persuaded some 93,000 Korean residents and their families to emigrate to North Korea. The then Prime Minister Ichiro Hatoyama, who is the grandfather of the incumbent Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, promised Chongryon cooperation on the project and, in 1959, the Japanese Cabinet asked the International Committee of the Red Cross to become the intermediary, so the Homecoming Project progressed smoothly.

At the time, the Chongryon hung out slogans, ¡°Humanitarian route heading for Utopia on earth,¡± and ¡°You can do anything you want.¡±

Miraculously, around 170 people managed to leave North Korea again and return to Japan. They defected back because of serious discrimination, close monitoring and contradictions in the North¡¯s system.

Those who got back home initially had to keep silent for the sake of their family members still residing in North Korea. Additionally, the influence of Chongryon at that time was not insubstantial. However, as Chongryon weakened they started spreading the reality of North Korea, breaking the illusion of North Korea and Chongryon among Korean residents once and for all.

Ko Jung Mee, whose parents took her and went to North Korea in 1963 when she was just three years old, filed a damages suit in Japan claiming that her parents were completely deceived by the Chongryon¡¯s lies after she defected back to Japan 37 years later. In addition, Japanese NGOs such as National Association for the Rescue of Japanese Kidnapped by North Korea, Life Funds for North Korean Refugees, NO FENCE and others, regularly hold demonstrations criticizing Chongryon.