▲ The writer, Kim Chan Ku in the Sunpyong Toy Company

Since in the late of 1988 the trip to N. Korea opened to Korean-Americans, pro-NN Korean-Americans have done their activities in triumph.

There are a few reasons they became against South Korea. One of them is that they were usually politicians who had individual conflicts or power struggles in South Korea. Many of them were high-ranking officials and the people responsible for corruption so that they could not help but leaving South Korea.

The South Korean government put them on the so-called Black List and controlled their admissions into South Korea. It kept them from coming into South Korea even as their family died. It called them pro-NK Korean Americans.

They are classified into two classes: one is the people selected for foreign propaganda activities and the other is the people who got just accepted. Only the former can come and go to N. Korea. Some people strived to get accepted by N. Korea.

East Pro-NK and West Pro-NK Compete to be a Single NK Window

Pro-NK Korean Americans do not have an organization like Jochongnyeon(pro-NK Korean Japanese), yet some pastors who emigrated into America during the Korean War was classified into black list and could not come back to N. Korea.

Such Korean-Americans live in East areas (NewYork, Washington DC) and West areas (California, San francisco, L.A). Each party strived to show their loyalty to N. Korea and picked on each other and furthermore favored N. Korea to visit them.

In addition, as each party asked for N. Korea to chose them as a single window into N. Korea, N. Korea said to both of them that “OK, you are a single window”. So both of them think they were a single window.

Loyalty and window competitions led to the fastidious procedures for NK visits. At first, N. Korea did not care about what kinds of people visited into it. However, later it required registrations, recommendations of the area chief and special fees. It cost a great deal people to visit N. Korea on business or family matters. So, they suffered from convenience and felt sorrowful.

Complaints of Pro-NK Korean Americans Prevented People from Visiting N. Korea

Regardless any pro-NK Korean Americans, I felt free to come and go to N. Korea. Regarding this aspect, pro-NK Korean Americans complained to Pyongyang. In a few days, Pyongyang said to me as follows.

“Mr. Kim Chan Gu, from the next time, you should bring a recommendation”
“Yes” said I. But my gorge rose up at it.
“Why do I have to pay for Pyongyang visits”.

At that time I visited N. Korea once per two months. It took long to come from America, so I went by way of Seoul and Beijing. One day I called Pyongyang to visit it, yet it said to me that I should get a recommendation from someone living in America. I was so stifled that I sent a long fax letter.

“I am a businessman coming and going from Hong Kong to Pyongyang. Why do I have to get a recommendation from Korean-Americans? I cannot figure out why I should need that recommendation”.

However, Pyongyang answered to my letter, “This time you had better save their faces”.

Pro-NK Korean Americans Only Finding out Money Sources through N. Korea

Pro-NK Korean Americans abused their power in gathering tourists or visitors to N. Korea asif their recommendations were the only way to make a trip to N. Korea. Besides it, there were so many things to tell.

Finally, such actions of pro-NK Korean Americans caused the delay of my visit to N. Korea, parts and materials were delivered to my factory. So I called vice-Ambassador Han Sang Ryeul UN in New York. I told him about that, send a fax and I called him again in a few days. He said that, “I called Pyongyang. You can get a visa from Beijing Embassy”.


Pro-NK Korean Americans say that they have been trying to contribute to the national development. However, in practice they do not even invest into any businesses and they just do propaganda activities like posting banners “Traitor! Kill Him” to Korean president visiting America and Canada.