Yanagida, minister of Justice who doubles as minister in charge of Abduction Issue, when referring to the issue of the application of tuition-free program to the Korean schools which was handled at the budget committee of the House of Representatives on Oct. 13, took up cudgel against it, saying that the textbooks of the Korean schools have contents arousing concerns.

What should not be overlooked is that a politician at an official post expressed such stand at a time when the Japanese reactionaries adopted "resolution" in demand of the exclusion of the Korean schools from the list of assistance for the senior high schools, branding them as "ideology-oriented schools" and the "institutions for operations against Japan".

As already clarified, the issue of applying tuition-free program to the Korean schools is an issue of the stand and viewpoint on the overseas citizens of a sovereign country rather than a financial issue on whether allocating a petty amount of money or not and, furthermore, a serious political issue directly related to the attitude of the present Japanese authorities toward the DPRK.

It is so mean for the Japanese reactionaries to try to exclude only the Korean schools from the program.

It is by no means fortuitous that voices of concern that this is a dangerous precedent in violation of the international convention on human rights which calls for guaranteeing foreign students equal right to education are growing louder at home and abroad.

Voices calling for treating the children of foreigners who have the permanent residentship or lived long in Japan almost the same as Japanese children are heard even in the political circle of Japan.

The Japanese reactionaries have machinated to arrest and destroy the national education of the General Association of the Korean Residents in Japan (Chongryon) and, furthermore, eliminate Chongryon by applying sanctions and pressure even on the Korean schools and students in Japan who pose no problem. This has once again rubbed salt into the wound of the Korean people who could not but lose the right to the national education under the colonial rule of the Japanese imperialists in the past.

The Korean students in Japan are the descendents of the Koreans who were forcibly taken to Japan by the Japanese imperialists in the past and the Korean schools are legitimate institutions for national education under operation with the approval of the Japanese government.

In the light of crimes committed by the Japanese imperialists in the past and from the educational point of view, Japan is under legal and moral obligation to respect and guarantee the right of the Korean students in Japan to national education.

The Japanese reactionaries' rash act of excluding the Korean schools in Japan from the tuition-waiver program are part of vicious moves against the DPRK and Chongryon and an unpardonable inhuman act in wanton violation of major international law and norms including the United Nations Charter on respecting the human rights and fundamental freedom of all people.

The Japanese reactionaries should cogitate about the consequences to be entailed by the indiscreet political terrorism aimed at Chongryon and the hostile policy toward the DPRK and stop at once their mean political farce.