Present at the conference were journalists of Chongryon and Japan and foreign correspondents in Japan.

Read out there was a statement of the Chongryon Central Standing Committee.

The statement disclosed that the Japanese government made public its decision to take independent sanctions measures against the DPRK on Feb. 10.

It went on:

The recent move was conducted in an attempt to isolate and pressure the DPRK by stepping up the building of the triangle military alliance among the U.S., south Korea and Japan while vociferating about the "threat from the north" with its successful H-bomb test and successful launch of the earth observation satellite Kwangmyongsong-4 as a pretext. It is, therefore, an unpardonable action to create new artificial obstacles in the DPRK-Japan relations, unreasonably restrict and crack down Chongryon's activities and the life of the Koreans in Japan.

Japan's acts will have serious impact on the DPRK-Japan relations as they are a reckless provocation against the peoples of the two countries and the international public wishing for peace in the Korean Peninsula and the rest of Northeast Asia and the good neighborly friendship between the two countries.

The statement demanded the immediate withdrawal of the unwarranted sanctions against the DPRK.

Then, Nam Sung U, vice-chairman of the Chongryon Central Standing Committee, answered the questions raised by journalists.

He laid bare the real intention sought by Japan in asserting that the military spy satellites launched by it are satellites in the true sense of the word but the earth observation satellite Kwangmyongsong-4 is an IBM.

Saying that the Japanese government unilaterally scrapped the DPRK-Japan inter-governmental Stockholm agreement by slapping sanctions against the DPRK, he stressed that organizations of the Central Standing Committee of Chongryon and headquarters in different areas would intensify information campaign denouncing the Japanese government's hostile acts and vicious sanctions racket against the DPRK.