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Japanese authorities' moves to suspend service of ship "Mangyongbong-92"

KCNA

    Pyongyang, June 8 (KCNA) -- The Korean Committee for Aiding Overseas Compatriots Saturday issued a statement denouncing the Japanese authorities' undisguised moves to suspend the service of the ship "Mangyongbong-92" to ensure visits of Koreans in Japan to their homeland. The statement dismissed this as a vicious plot to impair the prestige of the DPRK by refusing to allow the port call of ship "Mangyongbong-92" at any cost and a new manifestation of political suppression of the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan (Chongryon) and Koreans in Japan supporting and following the homeland.
    The ship has fulfilled in a responsible manner a purely humanitarian mission of ensuring visits of Koreans in Japan to the DPRK without a single accident over the last more than decade according to the agreement signed between the Red-Cross organizations of the DPRK and Japan.
    The ship has so far respected and strictly observed international law and practice and the Japanese law and has done nothing contradictory to it.
    We cannot but take note of the fact that the Japanese authorities have become more desperate in their unreasonable moves against "Mangyongbong-92" at a time when "further steps" and "strong measure" against the DPRK were called for at the "summit talks" between Japan and the U.S. and between the U.S. and South Korea.
    If this means a beginning of "sanctions" against the DPRK touted by the U.S. and its followers, it will push the situation to an unpredictable phase and bring about catastrophic consequences.
    Humanitarian activities to ensure visits of Koreans in Japan to their homeland should in no way be exploited as a political plaything.
    The Japanese authorities should not repeat what they did in the Cold War era to allow themselves to commit mistakes against humanity and historical responsibility by suspending even the service of "Mangyongbong-92," the only humanitarian work underway between the DPRK and Japan.
    The unjust measure taken by the Japanese authorities against "Mangyongbong-92" is an unpardonable breach of the DPRK-Japan Pyongyang Declaration which calls on the two countries to liquidate the unhappy past and establish new good-neighborly relations and a grave provocation endangering the fate and prospect of the declaration.
    The committee strongly demands the Japanese authorities respect the basic spirit of the declaration and opt for implementing it and thus rectify their hostile policy towards the DPRK and Chongryon, a policy which goes against the trend of the times, halt at once their political plot against the ship and fully ensure its free humanitarian activities.