N.Korea Vows Strong Action if Japan Limits Funds

May 19, 2003
By Elaine Lies

TOKYO (Reuters) - North Korea said on Monday it would take "strong counteraction" if Japanese officials tried to change the law to limit remittances from North Koreans living in Japan, one of the impoverished state's few sources of hard cash.  

The official North Korean newspaper Rodong Sinmun, which also noted that Japan was discussing "a ban on the export of weapons of mass destruction," said it saw such moves as "a provocation to seriously get on the DPRK's nerves."

DPRK is short for North Korea's official name.

Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party has discussed changing foreign exchange laws to make it harder for people such as pro-Pyongyang Koreans to make cash transfers to North Korea.

Japan also appears to be cracking down on companies that illegally export machines and parts to North Korea that could be used in weapons of mass destruction.

"We take this opportunity to re-clarify the stand of our army and people," the newspaper said in a report carried by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

"The DPRK will take a serious view of Japan's intensified anti-DPRK campaign and take a strong counteraction against it," the report said.

Some conservative lawmakers have called for economic sanctions against North Korea -- a step Pyongyang has said it would regard as tantamount to a declaration of war. The government has so far taken a cautious stance on the issue.

A group of ruling party lawmakers met last week to discuss changes to the law governing foreign exchange that would halt cash transfers to North Korea under certain circumstances, for example in retaliation for test firing a ballistic missile.


VITAL FUNDS

About 600,000 ethnic Koreans live in Japan, about one third of whom identify themselves as North Korean.

Currently, the law is interpreted as restricting Japan to sanctions only if they are part of a comprehensive international effort. The proposed changes would allow Japan to act within a more limited framework of two or more nations, including itself.

Asked if Japan could halt cash transfers to North Korea if the United States agreed, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda told a news conference: "It is possible."

Remittances to North Korea from Japan are considered a vital sources of funds for Pyongyang, although the exact amounts making their way to the country are not known. Most cash is hand-carried by Korean travelers on trips to visit relatives.

But such contributions appear to have been falling due in part to the poor state of Japan's economy.

A major pro-Pyongyang group that Korea watchers say sent some 3.5 billion yen ($30 million) to mark the 80th birthday of North Korea's "Great Leader Kim Il-Sung" in 1992 and establish a ferry between the two nations, sent only about 100 million yen ($860,000) in 2002, according to a Japanese intelligence source.

Japanese authorities are also apparently cracking down on firms with North Korean links suspected of illegal exports of machines that could be used in weapons of mass destruction.

Last week, authorities raided the Tokyo office of a firm run by a man of North Korean descent after it tried to export three power-control devices to North Korea.

The daily Sankei Shimbun reported on Monday that security and customs authorities suspect that six firms with links to North Korea, including the one raided last week, have illegally exported, or tried to export, a variety of parts that could be used in weapons of mass destruction since the late 1990s. ($1=115.62 yen)

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