Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

DATE=08/25/03

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

NUMBER=2-306802

TITLE=JAPAN / NOKOR FERRY (L&S)

BYLINE=STEVEN SHAYMAN

DATELINE=TOKYO

INTRO: A controversial North Korean ferry has docked in the northern Japanese port of Niigata. Steven Shayman in Tokyo reports that the vessel was greeted both by pro-Pyongyang ethnic Korean residents and Japanese angry over North Korea's abduction of Japanese citizens.

TEXT: It was the first time in seven months that the Man Gyong Bong-92 made the overnight run from the North Korean port of Wonsan to Japan. It is the only direct passenger link between the two countries.

Television reports showed crew members and passengers on the ferry deck, waving and clapping at ethnic Koreans waiting for them on the pier as the ship approached Niigata port Monday morning.

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The ship was also greeted by shouts of "go home," from a noisy group of supporters and families of Japanese kidnapped by the Stalinist nation during the Cold War era. Five of the kidnapped victims were allowed to return to Japan last year, but their children and the husband of one remain in North Korea.

After it docked, Japanese customs officials boarded the ferry for inspections. Tokyo suspects the vessel is used as a conduit for drug smuggling, illegal cash transfers and espionage.

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Japanese media reported the ship was carrying about 34 passengers and 38 tons of cargo. It is to take back about 200 ethnic Korean residents of Japan, and one hundred tons of goods when it leaves Tuesday.

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This woman just got off the ferry and says it is her right to come back to Japan and to go to North Korea to visit her relatives.

So Chung-on, of the pro-Pyongyang General Association of Korean Residents in Japan, calls the government's plans for extensive inspections an "overreaction" given the ship's "humanitarian" function.

The Man Gyong Bong came under suspicion earlier this year, when two alleged North Korean defectors testified in the U-S Congress that it had ferried from Japan parts used in Pyongyang's missile program.

Opposition to the ship also prompted several anti-North Korean incidents around the nation over the weekend. Japanese police defused two bombs planted by suspected rightists near a North Korean-linked bank and a building in the city of Fukuoka.

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Ethnic Koreans, many descendants of those forcibly taken to Japan during its 1910-1945 colonial rule of Korea, are not usually granted Japanese citizenship and often reflect the divided loyalties of communist North Korea and capitalist South Korea.

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The Man Gyong Bong's contentious port call is also emblematic of the tensions surrounding inter-Korean relations. Sunday in South Korea, a North Korean journalists' delegation scuffled with anti-Pyongyang protesters at the World University Games in Taegu. North Korea responded by threatening to withdraw from the games.

It also comes a few days before talks begin in Beijing to attempt to resolve the 10-month crisis surrounding Pyongyang's nuclear programs. The talks will involve the two Korea's, the United States, China, Japan and Russia. (SIGNED)

NEB/HK/SGS/KPD