| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
advertisement | ||
Thursday November 9, 4:02 PMN. Korean group hopes Democrats win leads to 2-way talks with U.S.(Kyodo) _ A pro-North Korea group in Japan expressed hopes Thursday that the victory for the U.S. Democrats in the midterm elections will help prompt Republican President George W. Bush to review his "hostile" policy toward North Korea and meet Pyongyang's request for bilateral talks.So Chung On, spokesman to the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan, told a press conference that many Democrats and even some Republicans in the Congress have recently urged Bush to hold one-on-one talks with North Korea and "this trend will be strengthened" after the elections. Speaking at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan, the chief of the association's International Affairs Bureau said it was no surprise to see the Republicans under Bush suffered a serious setback in the elections. "In my thoughts, North Korean authorities might have expected the result," So said. The association is the largest organization supporting pro-Pyongyang Korean residents in Japan widely known as Chongryon. So also called on the Japanese government to lift sanctions measures slapped on North Korea following its missile launches and a nuclear test and the public to stop harassing pro-Pyongyang Korean residents in Japan including children and students. "Now Japan has appeared as the most hostile country (against North Korea) in the world," So said, complaining Japan's sanction measures even limit humanitarian activities by citizens such as their trips between the two countries. As of the end of October, Chongryon learned of four physical violence cases against students going to North Korean schools, five cases of damage to the schools' premises and 161 threatening phone calls and e-mails sent to them, So said. Japan's sanctions, still in place, include a ban on the entry by the North Korean ferry Mangyongbong-92 to Japanese ports. The ferry is the only direct passenger link between the two countries which have no diplomatic ties. Japan imposed the sanction measures in stages since North Korea test-launched ballistic and other missiles July 5 and announced Oct. 9 to have conducted a nuclear test. |
|||
|
2005 Kyodo News © Established 1945. All Rights Reserved.
|