DPRK-AFFILIATED CHOSEN SOREN FACING "CRISIS" IN

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 TOKYO 000283

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/04/2018
TAGS: PREL PGOV JA KN
SUBJECT: DPRK-AFFILIATED CHOSEN SOREN FACING "CRISIS" IN
JAPAN

REF: A. 07 TOKYO 05020


B. 07 NAGOYA 00013

C. 07 OASAKA KOBE 00056

D. 07 TOKYO 01004

Classified By: Ambassador J. Thomas Schieffer. Reasons 1.4 (B) (D)


1. (C) Summary. The DPRK-backed Chosen Soren faces a
"crisis," with its income-generating network of financial
institutions and schools showing cracks, contacts tell
Embassy Tokyo. CS membership continues to decline and
rank-and-file members provide less support for
Pyongyang-backed political causes. However, social ties
remain viable, with members participating in wedding and
funeral ceremonies. Membership is unlikely to rebound, even
if the DPRK normalizes relations with the United States or
Japan. On January 8, the Osaka District Court authorized the
sale of Chosen Soren's Osaka headquarters building to a
Tokyo-based hotel chain for payment of debts. End Summary.

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Osaka Building Foreclosed
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2. (C) Tokyo's legal actions against the DPRK-backed Chosen
Soren (CS) organization in Japan continue to spur on the
demise of the organization, sources tell Embassy Tokyo
political officers. On January 8, the press reported that
the Osaka District Court had approved the purchase by a
Tokyo-based hotel chain of Chosen Soren's headquarters
building, which had been placed on the auction block for back
debt. The total acquisition price was reportedly 600 million
yen (approximately USD 6 million). The Osaka Chosen Kaikan
building, which served as the CS home for nearly 40 years,
had been owned by a DPRK-related company that went bankrupt
in June 2007, according to one Osaka media outlet.


3. (C) The Osaka court action mirrors similar steps taken by
the Tokyo High Court, which seized CS's downtown headquarters
in order to collect approximately USD 500 million in bad
loans owed to a quasi-governmental finance company (Ref A).
Japan also removed CS's tax-exempt status, an action that has
forced the closure of many CS-affiliated schools. Those
actions led to DPRK government-initiated protests in Tokyo,
Kobe, and Nagoya in March 2007 (Refs B, C, D).

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Chosen Soren in Crisis
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4. (C) Keio University Professor Atsuhito Isozaki, a leading
DPRK analyst, told Embassy Tokyo on January 31 that Chosen
Soren "is in crisis," and that the group has neither "money
nor centripetal force." According to Isozaki, CS relies on a
network of financial institutions and schools to generate
income. However, scores of ethnic Koreans withdrew from CS
after 2002 following North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's
admission that the DPRK had abducted Japanese nationals
during the 1970-80's. As a result, the CS-created Chogin
Bank has failed and fewer students are enrolled in CS
schools, Isozaki maintained.

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Social Ties Remain
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5. (C) On January 25, Rescue The North Korean People Urgent
Action Network (RENK) leader Koh Young-ki told the Embassy
that many members have left Chosen Soren, and that the
group,s once strong financial and ideological networks have
weakened.


6. (C) Koh observed that CS social ties remain viable, with
members continuing to participate in wedding and funeral
ceremonies. He said that CS social connections are built
among graduates of North Korean schools in Japan, in which
many members attended school from kindergarten through high

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school and university. However, CS membership continues to
decline and rank-and-file members provide less financial
support for Pyongyang. According to Koh, "North Koreans in
Japan cannot deny the DPRK's real situation and don't want to
be involved with the DPRK anymore." Others hope to maintain
the social cohesion CS provides ethnic North Koreans in
Japan, but shun any association with the Kim Jong-il regime.


7. (C) Koh predicted, however, that while Chosen Soren will
not disappear, membership would not increase even if the DPRK
normalizes relations with the United States or Japan. Many
North Koreans find it an easy matter to change nationality
and to naturalize in South Korea, and few view such actions
as betrayal, he added. While participants in non-political
CS events may attract several thousand people, Koh said that
the politically-motivated events draw significantly fewer
participants. (Note: While Koh has strong and tendentious
anti-DPRK views, they are nevertheless substantiated by
numerous Tokyo and Osaka-based observers.)
SCHIEFFER