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Kim Is Squeezed as North Koreans in Japan Switch Citizenship

Kim Is Squeezed as North Koreans in Japan Switch Citizenship
By Hideko Takayama June 29 (Bloomberg) — Kim Jong Il no longer supports the government of North Korea. Kim is a 66-year-old businessman who owns a shoe factory in Kobe, Japan. In 1997, he resolved to switch his citizenship to South Korea from North Korea after deciding that “I could no longer support a government that allowed children to starve to death.”

Since then, thousands of North Korean residents in Japan have made the same decision. And that is bad news for the other Kim Jong Il — the one, no relation to the businessman, who has ruled North Korea since 1994.

For the last four decades, Japan’s North Korean residents have sent billions of yen in money and goods back home to their relatives and the Pyongyang regime. As more and more of them switch their allegiance to South Korea, they are choking off the flow of resources to an isolated and impoverished country already coping with trade sanctions.

While there is no way of knowing exactly how much they have sent, Katsumi Sato, director of the Modern Korea Institute in Tokyo, estimated that in the early 1990s, the annual total was some 60 billion yen ($600 million) in money and supplies.

“The cash and goods sent from Japan in the late 1980s were bigger than their national budget,” Sato said. “It was North Korea’s lifeline.”

Forced Labor

Japan was home to more than 600,000 Koreans in the 1970s, according to Japanese government figures. Roughly 330,000 were loyal to the South and 280,000 supported the North. They were the descendants of forced laborers Japan brought back from the peninsula during the era of colonial rule from 1910 to 1945, or Koreans who came to Japan looking for work.

South Korean residents now number about 400,000, according to the Korean Residents Union, a pro-South group. North Koreans are estimated at less than 50,000. The Chosensoren, an organization founded in 1955 to represent the interests of North Koreans who live in Japan, doesn’t disclose how many members it has.

One wave of North Koreans switched allegiance in the mid- 1990s after visiting their relatives and witnessing their suffering as a result of the famines that killed as many as 3 million people. Hundreds more switched when North Korea’s Workers Party secretary Hwang Jang Yop defected to South Korea in February 1997 and openly criticized Kim’s regime.

Demographic Forces

The shift reflects demographic as well as political forces. Older North Koreans are dying; some younger ones are becoming naturalized Japanese citizens. Other younger residents have fewer direct ties with their North Korean relatives and find other ways to spend their money.

One 27-year-old computer programmer dreamed of a honeymoon in Italy, then he hit a snag: He needed a fistful of time- consuming approvals and permits to travel. So he became a South Korean and heads to Italy this summer. He asked that his name not be used because he still has some loyalty to North Korea and feels uncomfortable about the switch.

Japan’s decade of recessions and slow growth has also taken a toll on the flow of cash and supplies sent to the homeland. Much of the money has come from North Korean residents running pachinko gambling halls, an industry with annual sales of 28 trillion yen ($231 billion), according to the Japan Productivity Center for Socio-Economic Development. But even these popular parlors have felt a financial pinch.

Seeking Protection

In April, a pachinko chain owned by a former North Korean resident and known as Daiei — no relation to Kobe-based retailer Daiei Inc. — filed with the Tokyo District Court for protection from creditors under the Civil Rehabilitation Law.

“With the slump in Japan’s economy, many North Koreans here lost their businesses,” Kazuhiro Kobayashi, who wrote “Kim Jong Il’s Big Laugh” and other works on North Korea, said in an interview. “I believe the amount of funds flowing to the North from Japan is less than a twentieth of what it was.”

One sign of North Korea’s woes: Last week, the Tokyo District Court ordered the Chosensoren to pay 62.7 billion yen to cover unpaid debt or face the seizure of its headquarters in lieu of payment.

In the past, the Chosensoren might have collected money from North Korean residents in such a situation. That’s now much more difficult, not only because of the North Korean business failures, but also because many residents criticize the organization for serving as a watchdog or even a branch office of the government in Pyongyang.

Medical Supplies

North Korea has also found it increasingly difficult to transport cash, medical supplies, clothing and other goods from its residents in Japan.

In the past, most of this cargo would travel on the North Korean vessel Mangyonbong, which docked on Japan’s northwestern coast. The ship also carried 90 percent of the parts for North Korean missiles, according to testimony in 2003 before a U.S. Senate subcommittee by a North Korean engineer who defected.

After North Korea test-fired several missiles over the Sea of Japan in July 2006, Japan banned the Mangyonbong from its ports. It banned all other North Korean ships after the underground nuclear test last October, as part of its economic sanctions.

The flow of North Koreans changing citizenship shows no sign of abating. In Tokyo alone, residents have been switching at a rate of roughly 100 a month since 2006, according to statistics from the South Korean consulate in Tokyo. In February 2007, the latest month available, 120 switched.

For Bae Soo Hong, the 46-year-old president of a construction company near Osaka, it was Kim Jong Il — the ruler, not the businessman — who made him decide to change.

When Kim acknowledged during a 2002 meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi that North Korea had abducted Japanese citizens, “I knew it was time,” Bae said. He became a South Korean citizen this month.

To contact the reporter on this story: Hideko Takayama in Tokyo at htakayama10@bloomberg.net .

Last Updated: June 28, 2007 11:06 EDT

I have read on MSNBC, and Time that Kim JongIl is currently in poor health with a weak heart from years of heavy drinking, smoking and womanising. I only wished that he was assassinated when some brave dissidents tried to set off an explosion that would have taken out his personal train.

Now it seems Kim is desperate to maintain his princely lifestyle while his citizens continue to starve and become increasingly desperate in escaping their cesspool of a nation. Not even his sleeper agents in South Korea or his father’s Cold War ally (China) could do much to stem the tide of North Korean refugees into their soil.

Kim has also made many Koreans look like racist savages with his random missile tests towards Japan as a way to blackmail the world to keep his power structure around. Now it looks like many zainichi Koreans are switching over to the South Korean Mindan over Chosensoren in the hopes of reducing their incidents of racial profiling by the local Japanese authorities and to expand their opportunities abroad. Anti-Korean sentiment in Japan has been on the rise partly in response to earlier anti-Japanese sentiment and from the actions of Kim Jongil since many Japanese consider ethnic Koreans in their country as mostly DRPK-sleeper agents leeching off the Japanese economy.

One would ask why these Koreans did not bother switching to full Japanese citizenship. Well the answer to that is because Japanese citizenship is notoriously difficult to obtain:

But there has been constant criticism of Japan’s naturalization policy. Because of vague criteria and secretive procedures for reviewing applicants, the Justice Ministry is said to have too much discretion over whether to accept applicants, discouraging many foreigners from applying for citizenship.The Nationality Law, which came into effect in 1950, stipulates six requirements for applicants.

Applicants must have lived in Japan for five consecutive years before filing, be aged 20 or over and be considered responsible under Japanese laws, be able to financially support themselves as well as their family, be without nationality or ready to lose their original nationality upon obtaining Japanese citizenship, have no involvement in subversive activities and have a record of good behavior.

Currently, the ministry’s review of an application for naturalization usually takes about 11 months for “special permanent residents” and 12 months for other foreigners after they submit a large number of required documents.

Special permanent residents — mostly North and South Korean nationals — refer to those whose ancestors came or were brought here from areas formerly under Japanese colonial rule. These residents make up the majority of those who are naturalized.

Required documents include a resume, a description of one’s family and all tax-related records. Various certificates from one’s home country, including information covering nationality, birth, school graduation and family ties as well as criminal records, are also required.

Photographs of applicants’ family members, home exterior and interior and workplace, maps showing where a person has lived for the past three years, documents showing loans and housing rents are all needed.

Then applicants must write why and how seriously they want to become a citizen. Applicants are also required to have the Japanese language skill of at least a third grader.

During the review process, ministry officials visit the applicant’s neighborhood to ask neighbors questions about the applicant’s behavior.

While these steps make it extremely tedious to become a full citizen, it has been able to keep most of Japan pure and largely free from the multicultural demographics that are currently defining the west. This also is one of the key reasons why so few zainichi Koreans and other long-term residents even bother to become Japanese citizens in the first place.

In any event, it is always good to know that Kim JongIl’s grip on power is slowly slipping away. Then again, North Korea would not have detonated the nuke if the US of A wasn’t so busy destabilising Iraq in the name of regional domination and crude oil.

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こんばんは

俺は２００６年７月にアメリカに来ました。

今OFFICEのサラリマンです。

月曜日から金曜日まで毎日OFFICEへ行きます。

先週は土曜日でした、俺は友たちのうちに来ました。

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Taiwan’s huge budget to save ties under fire: newspaper

Taiwan’s huge budget to save ties under fire: newspaperJun 25, 2007, 23:07 GMT

Taipei - Taiwan has budgeted 848 million US dollars for 2007 to maintain diplomatic ties with Taipei’s 24 allies, drawing criticism from several lawmakers, a newspaper reported Tuesday.

The online newspaper ETToday.com said that Taiwan’s 2007 budget includes an 848-million-dollar diplomatic budget - the money Taiwan uses to maintain diplomatic ties with foreign countries.

Out of the diplomatic budget, 309 million dollars is budgeted for ‘emergency use’ or ‘international cooperation,’ the paper said.

The paper estimates that Taiwan’s true diplomatic budget is even higher because there is also a 151-181 million dollar ’secret budget’ for diplomatic activities that cannot be made public.

On Monday two lawmakers - Joanna Lei and Kuo Su-chun - blasted the costly efforts by the government to preserve diplomatic ties, according to ETToday.com.

Lei and Kuo said Taiwan’s allies are making unreasonable demands for aid from Taiwan, citing Nicaragua’s recent demands that Taiwan write off its debts.

‘Taiwan is like a credit card supplier. Our allies’ relationship with Taiwan is based on … use (of) our credit cards and later do not have to pay for their purchases,’ Lei was quoted as saying.

Kuo said Taiwan should use the cash to improve its potholed roads and other infrastructure, not give it away to foreign countries when Taiwan is still very poor, according to ETToday.com.

Gutemalan President Oscar Berger arrived in Taipei on June 19 for a four-day visit. President Kessai Note of the Marshall Islands is due to arrive in Taipei Tuesday for a five-day visit. Lei and Su said the purpose of both presidents’ visits is to ask for money.

Taiwan Province gets no respect from their 24 dwindling allies. All these so-called allies see the province as just some kind of low-interest credit card that they don’t need to ever repay and I reckon blackmailing the province for recognition in return for wiping out its national debt is a bit excessive.

It also doesn’t help that the Province isn’t exactly flushed with huge cash reserves like it did in the late 70s and early 90s either. Besides, none of these countries had Taiwan Province’s back when they tried to gain observer status in the WHO and I am sure they will not back it again when it tries to join the UN as “Taiwan”.

With allies like these, who needs enemies?

Stab victim ‘continued sex act’

Stab victim ‘continued sex act’

Christine Kellett
June 20, 2007

A Brisbane woman stabbed a male friend twice in the shower after he refused to stop masturbating in front of her children.

Defence lawyers for Kylie Louise Wilson, 28, said the mother of two “lost it” when her friend of six years, Daniel Peter Blair, went on a masturbation marathon on April 6 last year.

Brisbane’s District Court this morning heard Mr Blair had showed up at Wilson’s unit at Birkdale unit, in Redland Shire, where he took amphetamines before having a shower.

Whilst in the bathroom, Mr Blair, 32, began pleasuring himself, before moving to Wilson’s bedroom, where he rolled around naked on her bed and continued his lewd conduct.

He returned to the bathroom for more and was busted by Wilson, who was attempting to bath her three-and-a-half year-old daughter.

The court heard Mr Blair refused her repeated requests to stop, prompting her to fetch a knife from the kitchen which she used to stab him twice in the left shoulder.

Crown prosecutors said Mr Blair paused only to put on his shorts and flee outside to wait for police to arrive, but was again overcome by the urge.

“Despite his injury, it seems (Mr Blair) continued to masturbate while in the garage,” the prosecutor said.

Police took him to hospital where he received treatment for the minor stab wounds.

Wilson pleaded guilty to one count each of unlawful wounding and wilful damage.

Her defence barrister, Mark Johnson, said Wilson regarded Mr Blair as a “tolerably decent person” when he was not using drugs, but had become “extremely protective” of her daughter under the circumstances.

“He was in and out and round about, doing this sort of thing all over the house, ” Mr Johnson said.

“She just lost it, to put it crudely.”

Senior Judge Gilbert Trafford Walker accepted the Crown’s submission that Wilson had been subjected to “grossly offensive conduct … which in a moral sense amounts to extreme provocation.”

He sentenced her to nine months’ jail but ordered that she be immediately released on parole.

theage.com.au

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Singapore says Taiwan’s UN referendum plan ‘provocative’

Singapore says Taiwan’s UN referendum plan ‘provocative’
AFP
Published: Friday June 22, 2007

Singapore criticised Friday Taiwan’s plan to go ahead with a referendum on joining the United Nations under its own name as “provocative and irresponsible”.

“Singapore opposes any unilateral move to alter the status of Taiwan,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.

“The proposal to put Taiwan’s UN membership bid under the title ‘Taiwan’ to a referendum is provocative and irresponsible,” it said.

Taiwan, under its official name the Republic of China, lost its UN seat to mainland China in 1971. The two sides had split in 1949 after a civil war.

Its efforts to rejoin the world body have been repeatedly blocked by Beijing, which regards Taiwan as part of its territory awaiting reunification.

Singapore said the move would raise tensions between Taiwan and China.

“It can only give false hope to the Taiwanese people, raise cross-straits tensions and reduce Taiwan’s international space,” the statement said.

“There is no realistic prospect of Taiwan joining the UN. The vast majority of UN members adhere to a ‘One China’ policy and will not support Taiwan’s membership of the UN under any appellation.”

On Monday, independence-leaning Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian told a visiting US delegation that he planned a referendum next year on the issue alongside the March 2008 presidential election.

A Taiwan foreign ministry spokesman told AFP on Wednesday that the island planned to go ahead with the referendum despite a warning from key ally Washington not to proceed.

Reality bites but Taiwan Province decides to go ahead and anger their American overlords, and neutral Singaporean allies by going ahead with a UN bid that will be dead on arrival. If Taiwan Province should listen to any ally it should be Singapore, who are still willing to work by their side, who still send their soldiers to train alongside the forces on Taiwan Province, and even played the neutral 3rd party in the 1992 talks between the two governments. However, Taiwan Province has not been so kind to Singapore by calling that real country a “a tiny nation no bigger than dried nasal mucus” which only hurt the province’s reputation in the world.

Regardless of any of these developments, Chen Shui-bian won’t help Taiwan’s survival and development.