It has come to light that North Korea instructed a former senior member of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) to engage in anti-Japanese propaganda activities against Japan.
On the 9th, Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun analyzed the verdict from the Suwon District Court in South Korea and reported that North Korea had directed the former KCTU leader to intensify Japan-South Korea tensions and foster anti-Japanese sentiment.
Particularly shocking is the revelation that domestic conflicts over Fukushima's contaminated water were influenced by North Korean directives.
In November of last year, the Suwon District Court sentenced three former KCTU officials, including the former director of the union's organizational struggle department, to 5 to 15 years in prison for espionage activities.
These individuals are said to have carried out espionage, disguised as union activities, and had contact with North Korean agents abroad from 2017 to 2022, following instructions from North Korea.
Yomiuri Shimbun analyzed 89 North Korean directives admitted as evidence in the verdict, confirming that North Korea had instructed anti-Japanese propaganda activities related to the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant's contaminated water discharge issue.
Especially in May 2021, after the Japanese government decided to release the contaminated water, North Korea ordered its operatives to "incite anti-Japanese sentiment and provoke Japan severely," labeling Japan's actions as "nuclear terrorism" and spreading this narrative.
This directive was issued amid strained Japan-South Korea relations due to issues like the wartime laborers' compensation dispute.
North Korea also instructed the development and execution of strategic measures to intensify Japan-South Korea conflicts, including protests near the Japanese Embassy, burning Japanese products, and other radical actions.
These instructions continued during the worsening of Japan-South Korea relations over the wartime laborers' compensation issue in 2019.
At that time, North Korea ordered to "strengthen extreme anti-Japanese struggles, such as surrounding the Japanese Embassy and tearing the Japanese flag."
Yomiuri Shimbun analyzed that during this period, boycott movements against Japanese products and protest activities led by South Korean civic groups intensified.
Moreover, North Korea directed actions to weaken the "trilateral alliance of South Korea, the U.S., and Japan," especially criticizing the "submissive South Korea-U.S. alliance" shortly after the Yoon Suk-yeol government was inaugurated in May 2022, accusing it of being overly focused on anti-North Korean confrontation.
Yomiuri Shimbun reported that the majority of North Korean directives targeted "anti-conservative, anti-American, and anti-Japanese" activities, pointing out that North Korea aimed to sow discord within South Korea and escalate Japan-South Korea tensions to weaken the cooperation among South Korea, the U.S., and Japan.
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