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N. Korea donates US$2 million to pro-Pyongyang group in Japan: report
SEOUL, April 12 (Yonhap) -- Impoverished North Korea has donated US$2 million in free educational funds for a group of Korean residents in Japan loyal to its communist regime, the North's media said Saturday.
Despite its dire economic situation, North Korea has periodically sent free educational funds to help support the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan, a pro-Pyongyang Korean residents' organization in Japan.
The money was sent in the name of the North's leader, Kim Jong-il, marking the April 15 birth anniversary of Kim's late father and president, Kim Il-sung who died in 1994 at age 82. The North celebrates the day as one of its biggest holidays, along with the current leader's.
Kim Jong-il "sent 205 million yen as educational aid fund and stipends to the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan for the democratic national education of the children of Koreans in Japan," the Korean Central News Agency said in a report, monitored in Seoul.
As a result of Japan's colonization of the Korean Peninsula in the early part of the 20th century, about 700,000 Koreans have ended up living in Japan. About 500,000 of them are pro-South Korea, with the remaining 200,000 believed loyal to Pyongyang.
North Korea regards the pro-Pyongyang residents' group in Japan as its major overseas support base. The pro-communist group operates a number of primary and junior and high schools in Japan where students of Korean ancestry learn the Korean history and language.
The latest North Korean financial donation comes amid warnings by international aid groups that the isolated communist country faces its worst food shortage in years.
The U.N. World Food Program has warned that North Korea is in the grip of a severe food shortage due to two years of flood damage and soaring international grain prices.
According to Seoul-based aid groups, food rations were halted even in the North's showcase capital, Pyongyang, this month. North Korea has depended on international handouts to feed a large number of its 23 million people since the late 1990s.
hkim@yna.co.kr
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