Chosen Soren

Chongryon(??) in Korean or 'Chosen Soren'(????) in Japanese, or the General Association of Korean Residents (Zainippon Chosenjin Sorengokai) in Japan, is the name of an organization for ethnic Koreans living in Japan, which has close ties to North Korea. Chongryon was established on May 25 1955 by Han Deok Su, who was an activist of leftist labor movements in Japan. For South Korean residents in Japan, there is Mindan, the Korean Residents Union In Japan. Currently, among 610,000 Korean residents in Japan, 65 percent are the members of Mindan, and 35 percent are the members of Chongryon.

Related Topics:
North Korea - Chongryon - May 25 - 1955 - Han Deok Su - Mindan

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The main headquarters is in Tokyo, and there are also prefectural and regional head offices and branches. The organisation also operates eighteen mass propaganda bodies and twenty-three business enterprises. One of the most important is pachinko. Chongryon affiliates and supporters are thought to control as much as one third of the pachinko industry in Japan. An imporatant function of these enterprises is earning hard currency to be remitted to Pyongyang. These remittances have been estimated at between $600 million and $1.9 billion each year, but are probably much lower. http://www.globalsecurity.org/intell/world/dprk/chosen_soren.htm

Related Topics:
Pachinko - Japan

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As there is no diplomatic relations between Japan and North Korea, Chongryon has been the defacto North Korean embassy in Japan. It also operates Korean schools from kindergarten to university, Korean banks, and other facilities in Japan.

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