Caught in the Crossfire: North Korean Loyalists in Japan.

Recent bilateral relations between Japan and North Korea are the worse they have been in many years. Several major problems still impede the normalization of Japan-North Korea relations. These problems, but particularly the abduction of Japanese nationals during the 1970s and 1980s by North Korean agents and Japan's past annexation of Korea, continue to strain this bilateral relationship. Pyongyang's decisions in 2006 to launch a series of missiles and then to detonate a nuclear device created even more problems for the already bad relationship between Japan and North Korea. Caught in the middle of a these bilateral problems, which have palpably increased tension between Tokyo and Pyongyang, are the many thousands of Korean residents in Japan who have maintained their political allegiance to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). Represented by Chongryon (General Association of Korean Residents in Japan) for more than fifty years, these Koreans loyal to the DPRK, like all zainichi (Koreans permanently living in Japan), have long faced discrimination in Japanese society. However, of late the members of Chongryon also have had to contend with the political fallout from the visible deterioration in Japan-North Korean relations, which has been exacerbated by Tokyo's adoption of a hard-line policy toward the DPRK. This paper examines the politically connected problems that Chongryon Koreans have recently experienced in Japan, as well as the extent to which this ethno-political minority has been subjected to repression by the Japanese government, as claimed by these Koreans and by Pyongyang. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]