The DPRK-Japan Friendship Association in a statement Thursday bitterly denounced the Japanese reactionaries' unprecedented inhuman crackdown upon Chongryon and Koreans in Japan.

The statement said that through this action Japan completely put off its mask as "law-governed state" and "democratic state" and revealed its true colors as a country of brutes and gangsters.

It went on:

The Japanese police authorities claimed that the arrested three Koreans in Japan violated the "law on foreign exchange" by "importing north Korean songi mushrooms" but this claim is nothing but a sheer lie and fabrication without any legal ground.

The Japanese reactionaries have staged ceaseless campaigns against Chongryon and Koreans until today with the 60th anniversary of the formation of Chongryon at hand, but never have such campaigns been so vicious, persistent and frantic as now.

By revising the U.S.-Japan "defence cooperation guidelines", the Japanese authorities seek to lay a springboard favorable for realizing their ambition to turn Japan into a military giant and, at the same time, it tries to stamp out Chongryon, a full-fledged legitimate overseas citizens organization of the DPRK in Japan, to begin with, as part of its moves to stifle the DPRK, pursuant to the U.S. hostile policy toward the DPRK

With no frantic crackdown on Chongryon and Koreans in Japan on the basis of all sorts of lies and fabrication can the Japanese reactionaries arrest the righteous activities of Chongryon.

The Japanese authorities should stop the vicious politically-motivated crackdown and human rights abuses against Chongryon and Koreans in Japan and release the illegally detained officials of Chongryon at once.