Japanese law enforcement authorities are currently investigating the pro-Pyongyang General Association of Korean Residents in Japan, also known as Chosesoren, prompted by the United States-led war against terrorism and mounting criticism of public fund injection into its affiliated financial institutions, claims Professor Ha Dong Chan, 70, who taught literature at Chosensoren-run Korea College in Tokyo for two decades. Charged with writing alleged "anti-system poems," he was expelled from the general association in 1982. The author of "A Critical Biography of Kim Il Sung," Professor Ha has since been lecturing at a number of institutes including Korea University in Seoul. The following are excerpts of a recent interview with him.

Q: How do you assess the present status of the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan?

A: It can be likened to the state of a lonely island in the far-off seas. The ongoing investigation will continue so long as public funds are injected into credit subsidiaries of the Chogin Tokyo (a credit union) in efforts to protect their depositors. Though it has severely denounced the Japanese authorities over the investigation, Pyongyang has no capability to influence it. Neither can it afford to assist Chosensoren financially.

Q: What has caused the abrupt decline in the organizational base of Chosensoren?

A: For half a century North Korea has thoroughly exploited ethnic Koreans affiliated with the general association. The 13th Pyongyang Festival in 1989 provided a major watershed. To execute the festival, an event countering the Seoul Olympics of the previous year, North Korea desperately collected donations. Many Korean residents in Japan donated money under the banner of 'patriotism.' A wealthy man living in Saitama, when asked by an agent to donate Y50 million yen, responded, 'No one keeps that much money in cash at home. One has to make a bank loan and pay interest on it.' The agent was unaware of what interest was about, according to him. Many ethnic Korean businessmen who have had to pay interest on the bank loans they drew on the collateral of their assets are in an irrecoverable financial pinch in the wake of the collapse of Japan's bubble economy.

Q: What are the lessons one may learn from the Chosensoren failure with regard to its support of the North Korean regime?

A: In the 1970s Chosensoren-affiliated businessmen in Japan, under the name of patriotism. built scores of instant noodle and other plants in the North. Expecting that their assistance would help improve the living standards of North Koreans, they gave money unsparingly in the form of joint ventures in the mid-1980s and 1990s. Few of the plants and joint ventures exist today, as they have been shut down for various reasons including even out-of-order parts. A friend of mine who had taught at a Chosensoren-affiliated school for decades received only Y2 million upon retirement. Chosensoren has too much been bound by mythical justifications. When one donates money to or invests in North Korea, he or she should judge if the proposed act is practical, without being bound by such fixed perceptions as unification, the nation and patriotism.

Q: What, in your view, are the future prospects of Chosensoren?

A: Internally the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan is already cool towards Pyongyang and it should be difficult for the association to energize itself again, but Chosensoren will remain active for a while. Seoul, Tokyo, Pyongyang and Korean residents in Japan in general are all cool toward Chosensoren members. Once isolated from the outside, there is no alternative for an organization, interested in surviving, to achieve inner unity. But the young generation are either assimilated with Japan or neglect the value of remaining as members of the Korean nation. The Chosensoren will eventually be buried by the flow of history.

(Kim Mi-young, young@chosun.com )