After the Chongryon (General Association of North Korean Residents in Japan) had finished promoting their own “Homecoming Project,” the South Korean government began its own “Visit the Motherland” project, also targeting Korean residents in Japan.
In 1975, the Korean Residents Union in Japan (Mindan) took Korean residents affiliated with Chongryon and others to visit their ancestral graves in South Korea at Chuseok, the Korean traditional thanksgiving holiday. Many who felt deserted by or discontented with Chongryon were very fond of the project.
The Japanese media released impressive scenes of Korean residents who nominally sided with Chongryon visiting their homes after 30 years or more. From this beginning, the “Visit the Motherland” project grew in popularity.
According to the Mindan Newspaper, some 50,570 Korean members of the Chongryon visited South Korea thanks to the project between 1975 and 2005.
These visitors to South Korea were able to see that Chongryon propaganda about the poverty of South Korea was false. Even Chongryon officials and merchants affiliated with it visited South Korea secretly through the project. Thereafter, once news of the aftermath of the Chongryon’s Homecoming Project started spreading among members of Chongryon and “Visit the Motherland” grew in popularity, the atmosphere of the Korean residents’ community, previously dominated by Chongryon, changed forever.
As the Mindan project grew in popularity, Kim Il Sung instructed the Chongryon to strengthen their organization. Therefore, by the late-1970s the Chongryon had chosen reorganization as its priority in order to raise superior students for espionage activities against South Korea.
In the 1980s, Kim Il Sung handed down another decree, “Patriotism Project Renovation,” instructing core Chongryon officials to make efforts to prevent members’ breaking away from it. However, it was difficult to turn back the tide of public opinion which was inclining towards South Korea.
A former Chongryon official, who wishes to remain anonymous, told The Daily NK in a telephone conversation, “Before that Mindan project, people believed the propaganda released by Chongryon; that South Korea is a colony of the U.S. and the South Korean people live in a real hell. However, after visiting South Korea, they were shocked at South Korea’s economic development, and those facts circulated rapidly among other Korean residents.”
He added, “As the North’s real character became clear, the numbers of those who wanted to change their nationality to South Korean increased, and the Mindan’s “Visit the Motherland” project encouraged them to do so.”
