Chosen Soren Sues Japanse Government for Malicious Prosecution!
[Update: OK, I can top this. North Korea calls South Korea “fascist” for blocking pro-North Web sites.]
This deserves at least a footnote in the Funk & Wagnalls History of Chutzpah.
Chosen Soren, a/k/a Chongryon, is a North Korean-controlled organization of ethnic Koreans in Japan. A decade ago, Chosen Soren was a powerful and politically connected organization that poured millions into Kim Jong Il’s accounts through remittances, pachinko parlors, and a network of costly private schools teaching juche to the kiddies. It had even functioned as an unofficial North Korean embassy in Japan. But since the revelation that North Korea kidnapped dozens of Japanese from streets and shores in their home towns, a crime linked to Chosen Soren, the organization lost its tax-exempt status, came under close official scrutiny, became the object of popular revulsion, and has generally fallen on harder times. And thus does law become the last resort of the lawless.
A pro-Pyongyang organization in Japan filed a lawsuit against the Japanese government and Tokyo provincial government seeking compensation for damages it claims were caused by a police raid on its office, the local media reported.
According to the reports, the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan (Chongryon) lodged a complaint Friday with Tokyo’s district court, saying the investigation by the Japanese police last November was illegal.
The investigation was a political act intended to oppress the organization and its affiliates, it said. [Yonhap]
The specific basis for the investigation, at least according to Yonhap, was an allegation that an elderly member tried to ship IV-drip bags to Pyongyang, which I agree would be a rather poor exercise of prosecutorial discretion. Kyodo news is reporting other raids on illegal commerce with North Korea — two businesses that imported seafood and steel pipe joints. Meanwhile, there’s no word on Megumi Yokota’s writ of habeas corpus to Kim Jong Il.
A few anju links:
* Truth or Dare? CIA Director Gen. Michael Hayden calls North Korea’s nuclear test a failure, thereby denying them recognition as a nuclear power. I say let them test a few more to prove him wrong. The higher the concentration of tritium over Shenyang, the more doubts we should express.
* I Don’t Believe that this Administration will overtly accept North Korea as a nuclear power, and I think they will also have to signal strong opposition to North Korean signals that they expect as much. At the same time, I think it’s apparent that North Korea intends to stall the part of the deal that requires them to perform, and we’re already entering the diplomatic time warp known as an election year. North Korea will try to stall, betting that the Americans won’t walk away in an election year, or that a friendlier administration will assume power in 2009 and go right back to demanding little and giving much. David Asher, an expert on North Korea’s criminal activities, speaks bluntly:
They [North Korea] want it all,” Asher said. “And, so far, they’re getting it.” [….]
“What the North Koreans want is not just $25 million in dirty money from Banco Delta back. They want us to accept them as they are, a criminal state, in effect, with nuclear weapons,” Asher said. [NPR]
If Yongbyon hasn’t been shut down and sealed two weeks from today, how will we react?
* Don’t Blame Me, I Didn’t Vote for Them. Anyone who still reads this site and believes that the U.N. Human Rights Council is something better than a complete fraud really should watch this.
* Korean Apartheid Watch. Now, it’s the Chinese. This is a very good example of something petty that has broader consequences, although South Koreans refuse to grasp it.
* I’ve become a believer in using economics as a weapon of unconventional warfare, so I was surprised to see California setting a promising trend by proposing to divest their pension fund from Iran.
* This Sounds Vaguely Scandalous. Sen. Diane Feinstein, who chaired a key military appropriations committee, has resigned after it was reported that the same subcommittee funneled billions to defense contractors her husband controlled. I recall that Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid started talking about a “culture of corruption” when Randy “Duke” Cunningham got in trouble for something like this. I wonder which U.S. Attorney will take the case.