A spokesman for the DPRK-Japan Friendship Association in a statement Wednesday said in this regard:

The search into the Korean school and the Headquarters Hall of Chongryon made by the Japanese reactionaries while talking about "illegal application" of employment subsidies is aimed at branding Chongryon as "illegal organization" and "criminal organization" at any cost to tarnish the image of Chongryon, a dignified overseas citizens' organization of the DPRK and, furthermore, obliterate Chongryon.

The Japanese authorities are to blame for the brutal suppression of Chongryon and Koreans in Japan.

By origin, the Japanese authorities are obliged to ensure and protect the democratic and national rights and interests of Chongryon and the Koreans in Japan in light of how the issue of Koreans in Japan was spawned and requirement of international law.

Nevertheless, the Japanese reactionaries unhesitatingly commit terrorist act by mobilizing even the state power against the Koreans in Japan, not content with persecuting them, far from making an apology and reparation for the hair-raising crimes committed by Japan against the Korean nation in the past.

The searches into Chongryon organization and arrest of its officials and Koreans in Japan kicked off by the Japanese reactionaries in recent years are heinous inhuman crimes wantonly violating the declaration on rights of foreigners, the Havana convention on position of foreigners, the World Declaration of Human Rights and other international law.