At the press conference a statement of the Chongryon Central Standing Committee was read out.

The statement referred to the fact that the Japanese police authorities in the morning of March 26 conducted an unreasonable surprise search operation against the houses of the officials of Chongryon including Chairman Ho Jong Man and Vice-Chairman Nam Sung U of its Central Standing Committee by hurling the joint investigation headquarters made up of police headquarters of Kyoto, Kanagawa, Yamaguchi and Shimane prefectures.

The statement went on:

The search was conducted by them on absurd charge of the violation of "foreign exchange law" by a Korean resident's company which has nothing to do with Chongryon.

Chongryon is not related to the case at all, it noted, and continued:

The search is a despicable act of fanning up antagonism toward the DPRK and Chongryon in Japan by treating the chairman and vice-chairman of Chongryon as "criminals" though it is playing the role of a foreign diplomatic mission of the DPRK.

One cannot but suspect the Japanese government over the unjust search operation against officials of Chongryon.

The search will seriously affect the DPRK-Japan relations and the Japanese government will be held wholly responsible for it.