A spokesman for the Committee for Aiding Overseas Compatriots of Korea issued a statement Tuesday which said this is an intolerable provocation against the DPRK and Chongryon and a hideous criminal act.

The statement continued:

Clear is the aim sought by the Japanese authorities in staging the anti-Chongryon burlesque once again at a time when tension on the Korean Peninsula was deescalated and Koreans are about to celebrate the national day.

This is aimed to make the public convince that Chongryon is an illegal criminal organization, escalate anti-DPRK and anti-Chongryon moves deliberately and thus tarnish the image of Chongryon and invent a pretext for kicking off a wholesale crackdown on it at a time when the prestige of the DPRK and Chongryon is rising day by day.

We will never remain an on-looker to the Japanese reactionaries' forcible search and arrest of officials of Chongryon and Koreans in Japan.

With no lie and fabrication to intensify the suppression of Chongryon can the Japanese authorities hold in check the righteous and patriotic activities of Chongryon.

If the Japanese authorities truly want the improvement of the DPRK-Japan relations, they should stop at once the reckless politically-motivated suppression of Chongryon and Koreans in Japan and human rights abuses against them and immediately set free those Koreans unreasonably arrested.

We will closely follow the attitude of the Japanese authorities.