At dawn of Tuesday the Japanese police authorities hurled the joint investigation headquarters consisting of police headquarters in Kyoto, Kanagawa, Yamaguchi and Shimane prefectures into the fascist action of arresting all of a sudden the manager of the Korean Specialty Sales Company, the son of the chairman of the Chongryon Central Standing Committee and other person.

This unprecedented fascist action is a provocation against the DPRK and Chongryon, prompted by their sinister political motive without any legal ground.

It was taken on the basis of lies and fabrication.

Those three persons arrested have nothing to do with the so-called case of the Oriental Co. Ltd. and it has been confirmed through various channels that they have never imported even 0.001 gram of Songi mushroom of the DPRK origin.

Nevertheless, the Japanese police authorities illegally arrested them in the wake of the search for the houses of the chairman and a vice-chairman of the Chongryon Central Standing Committee after hyping the above-said case. This goes to fully prove that the Japanese reactionaries are escalating the racket against the DPRK and Chongryon on charges of the "violation of law".

The DPRK had already made it clear that the suppression of Chongryon, a dignified overseas citizens organization of the DPRK, is a sensitive issue which will lead to the encroachment on its sovereignty.

The recent action is an unpardonable provocation against the DPRK and a grave infringement upon its sovereignty as it took place in broad daylight in Japan styling itself "a law-governing state" and "democratic state."

The Japanese government authorities were behind the illegal violent action.

They recently revised the U.S.-Japan "defense cooperation guidelines," expanding the sphere of overseas military operations of the "Self-Defense Forces." Japan is joining the U.S. in its frantic campaign against the DPRK in a bid to prepare a springboard from which to carry out its scenario for turning Japan into a military giant.

To this end it is working hard to check the influence of Chongryon representing the DPRK in Japan, stir up the sentiment for lurch to the Right based on national chauvinism and thus create a political environment for reviving militarism.

The persecution of Chongryon is an act of inviting self-destruction as it is pushing the DPRK-Japan relations to the worst phase.

Absolutely unpardonable are the Japanese reactionaries who have committed all sorts of wrongs against guiltless Chongryon and Koreans in Japan, far from making an apology and reparation for the heinous crimes committed by Japan against the Koreans though seven decades have passed since the end of World War II.

The Japanese government authorities will be wholly responsible for their actions to encroach upon the sovereignty of the DPRK and stamp out Chongryon.