Kyoto District Court on Dec. 10 held a trial of Kim Yong Jo, president of the Korean Goods Sales Company, and Ho Jong Do, the then employee of the company in 2010, on the charge that they illegally imported Songi mushroom to Japan from north Korea in violation of the "law on foreign exchange".

The court at the trial sentenced Kim to two years in prison with a four-year stay of execution and Ho to one year and 8 months in prison with a four-year stay of execution and fined the company 2 million yens on the basis of the false evidence provided by the prosecution authorities.

It is clear that the trial was a product of the Japanese authorities' hostile policy towards the DPRK and their moves to stamp out Chongryon as the judgment was made on groundless charge without a serious examination.

At the end of the trial the compatriots' defense counsel held a press conference before the court at which it termed the court decision an utterly unjust one as it falsified truth.

After the press conference Chongryon officials and other Koreans in Japan who had attended the trial held an emergency meeting at the hall of Kyoto lawyers to condemn the decision.