Many people in Japan are driven by a particular passion regardless of its financial merit, and for Ken Kato that passion is North Korean human rights and especially exposing the slush funds of the country's leader Kim Jong-il in overseas bank accounts. "I spend more time bringing public attention to the slush funds than I do on my job," says Kato (40), who is in the mail-order business.

Kato has since last year sent thousands of letters and e-mails to foreign governments and lawmakers asking them to investigate Kim's slush funds, which are believed to be stored in a bank in Luxembourg. His efforts began after reading the Jan. 2 issue of the Japanese magazine Aera, which interviewed a former South Korean intelligence official who said Kim transferred slush funds worth US$400 million from a Swiss bank account to another one in Luxembourg.

"According to the UN, more than 9 million North Koreans are starving," Kato said. "They say more than 2 million have already starved to death. Can you believe people are starving to death while there is enough money to build nuclear weapons and to create slush funds?"

Ken Kato points to a response from the Luxembourg government.

Although his e-mails are sent as requests from a private citizen, he has received official pledges from the governments of Australia, Canada, Luxembourg, and U.K. to investigate. The Luxembourg government told Kato that it has participated in international efforts to detect and block North Korea's illicit activities using financial institutions in the principality. After receiving the response on Jan. 25, Kato held a press conference in Tokyo seeking to draw global attention to Kim's slush funds.

In May of last year, Kato sent a letter to the Singaporean government calling for a thorough investigation of North Korean money that had been deposited in a bank there. "Since then, the North Korean capital was moved from Singapore to Hong Kong," he says. "North Korean money is being closely monitored by governments around the world, and they will spring to action if somebody takes the time to publicize the problem."

Kato says he became interested in illicit North Korean money because the communist state, which kidnapped Japanese citizens, is a "dangerous country." He has also been active as a human rights activist for seven years rallying support for Tibetan independence and other issues. "I'm not writing these letter because I have better command of English than others," he says. "I'm writing them because I believe we can change history."