calendar>>January 22. 2011 Juch 100

Tuition-free Programfor Korean Schools in Japan Demanded

Pyongyang, January 22 (KCNA) -- Members of the Liaison Society for Opposing Japan's Policy of Excluding the Korean Schools from the Tuition-free Program for Senior High Schools visited the Cabinet Office and the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology on Jan. 12 to hand a written request addressed to the prime minister, the chief Cabinet secretary and the minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology in demand of lifting the discrimination against the Korean schools in Japan.

The petitioners chided the Japanese government for unreasonably excluding the Koreans schools from the program and suspending the formalities for applying the program under the pretext of the Yonphyong Island shelling incident in the West Sea of Korea at the end of last year.

This stirred up the tendency of discrimination and national chauvinism against the Koreans in Japan in its society, they noted.

They urged the Japanese government to stop meddling in the educational contents at the Korean schools and promptly make a final decision to apply the program to them by law.

In another development, Koreans in Japan and Japanese conducted information service in streets, scattering leaflets and holding placards demanding the application of the program.