Pro-Pyongyang rally

Military music/singing

01.00.00.00

v/o:  We're in Tokyo, the middle of capitalist, democratic Japan. But it's easy to imagine I'm in Pyongyang, the heartland of communist North Korea.

00.04

Beaming down from the stage, pictures of benevolence in North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, and his late father, Kim Il Sung, founder of the communist state.

00.23

Young girls on stage

Recitation

v/o:  More than 10,000 have come here to celebrate the leadership of Kim Jong Il as head of the Workers' Party of North Korea.

00.39

Music

North Koreans on Japanese street

v/o:  Highly organised, deeply patriotic, these people are helping prop up the very regime that holds their relatives captive, denying them food, freedom and some, the right to live.

00.53

Map North Korea

Music

North Korean school

v/o:  The lessons are in Korean. The ideology is North Korean, and school excursions are to the North Korean capital, Pyongyang. This high school is run by the North Korean community outside the jurisdiction of Japanese education authorities.

01.17

This is the first time one of these schools has allowed Western media to film within its walls.

01.34

Song Jong Ryol in class

Song Jong Ryol:  I'm North Korean because the nationality of my parents is North Korean. I've heard good things about my homeland by studying our textbooks.

v/o:  Eighteen year old Song Jong Ryol is in his final year. Along with his classmates he's preparing for their graduation visit to Pyongyang.

They represent a legion of young, open minds, and their textbooks contain no criticism of North Korea.

Song Jong Ryol

Song Jong Ryol:  I get angry when I see Japanese media reports about my homeland because they report only the bad side.  There's no diplomatic relationship between the two countries so there's no official channel for me to complain to.

02.10

Jong Ryol entering class

v/o:  Jong Ryol insists North Korean propaganda takes a back seat in the classroom. But what I saw was education, culture and politics all rolled into one.

Principal addressing students

Principal:  With deep love and thanks to the great leader Kim Jong Il we are able to go to the fatherland. First though, we will present badges of the great leader Kim Il Sung which have been sent to us from the fatherland.

Applause

Kitchen in Jong Ryol's home

v/o:  Both Jong Ryol's parents work to pay for the fees charged by the North Korean schools, for him and his two sisters. It costs around one and a half thousand dollars a month to send them to the schools.

03.11

Chong Gun Sil

Chong Gun Sil:  We wanted our children to learn the language of our homeland, and the history. It makes me feel good to think they can be proud to be North Korean.

03.23

Korean meal on table

v/o:  His mother, Chong Gun Sil, says they regularly send money and goods to North Korea, cutting their living costs and saving hard to donate.

03.36

Chong Gun Sil:  My eldest brother carries money and goods to hand over directly to his brother-in-law once or twice a year.

v/o:  The family takes part in the fund-raising for North Korea helping to buy vehicles, rice, clothing, and other goods.

Chong Gun Sil:  We are North Korean ever though we're living in Japan. When we hear that North Korean people are starving to death we want to send them rice - even if it's a small amount. 

04.07

Chong Gun Sil

We think if we work hard to send them even a small amount the situation there will be better.

v/o:  She doesn't believe the reports that the North Korean government takes a hefty slice of all the donations. Blind faith overrides any qualms about the regime. The starvation and the hardship being suffered by even their own family members, they put down to providence, not politics.

04.27

Chong Gun Sil:  I respect Kim Il Sung very much even though I've never personally lived under his leadership. I intend to contribute to North Korea, even in a small way and I hope and pray for the country. I have a lot of respect for Kim Il Sung.

Colgan:  Why?

Chong Gun Sil:  I feel he is the greatest leader.

Students boarding bus

v/o:  There's great excitement in the air tonight as the students, finally bound for Pyongyang, board the bus armed with ideology and presents.

05.14

Colgan with student

Young man:  I'm going to give this to relatives.

Colgan:  What is it?

Young man:  It's medicine. This is to plant in commemoration of our visit.

Jong Ryol with luggage

v/o:  A school trip into a country still considered hostile to the outside world. But for these students, a journey home.

05.34

FX:  Kids squealing

Chongryun meeting

FX:  Applause

v/o:  The North Korean community in Japan is controlled by these men, aging lieutenants of Kim Jong Il. We're in the school auditorium, and this is a meeting held just once every three years.

05.56

This is the executive of the Cho Chongryun - the pro-Pyongyang Korean Residents Association...but its reach goes far beyond community and cultural functions - it is Kim Jong II's political arm in Japan.

06.27

Man addressing crowd:  At this, the 18th National Meeting we admire our dear General and Great Leader of the Workers' Party of North Korea.

FX:  Applause

v/o:  A secretive, closely guarded organisation, it's widely reputed to be the channel for money and information into North Korea.

Colgan with Kim Son Hwi

Kim Son Hwi: In reality Chongryun greatly contributed to the life of Koreans - because they fought for us to have the rights of Koreans.  They know that Chongryun has made a great contribution to their life.  That's why they remain in the this organisation.

v/o:  A product of the North Korean school, Kim Son Hwi is one of the rank and file of Chongryun.

07.24

Kim Son Hwi:  They are working very hard for themselves and their country to be reunified.

Colgan:  Is that the main purpose?

Kim Son Hwi:  Yes.

v/o:  Third generation, Japan born, she considers herself North Korean and supports the North Korean regime of Kim Jong Il.

07.37

Kim Son Hwi at desk typing

She not only supports it, she writes for it, working as a journalist for the People's Korea newspaper.

07.50

Kim Son Hwi:  I'm working for the People's Korea, and the paper is said to be the official mouthpiece for North Korean Foreign Ministry. And there are some things that I cannot report. But I fall into a dilemma sometimes, -- really it's true -- but I have to do my best.

Kim Son Hwi in office

v/o:  She's fiercely patriotic, dismissing many of the disturbing reports coming out of North Korea.

08.20

Kim Son Hwi:  Yes, often I have to defend North Korea. If relations between the two countries were normalised they would know the reality of North Korea and they would know that North Korea is not such a horrible country. It's a normal country - they have their own leader and they believe their leader.

Tokyo street, evening/

Kim Son Hwi shopping

v/o:  Chongryun and the North Korean community have become a bulwark against the discrimination she says has followed her from childhood. Yet out in the Tokyo night, she looks like every other young woman shopping with friends. And it's here she becomes such a paradox.

08.52

She wants to study English in America, she enjoys the lifestyle and freedom of Tokyo. Yet she supports a regime that calls the United States enemy, and denies the freedom she enjoys to her own people.

09.11

Colgan:  Do you find it hard to maintain you belief in the system, and in the regime, when you're in the middle of Tokyo?

09.26

Kim Son Hwi:  Yes, yes, several times I was shocked to hear some reports of ill-information from North Korea. I was really dismayed and shocked.

v/o:  Yet she maintains the party line.

Kim Son Hwi

Kim Son Hwi:  In North Korea their greatest happiness is to live in line with the policy of the Workers' Party. In that sense they are happy. I don't know if they are free or not - but they are happy.

10.00

Professor Lee

Super: 

Prof. LEE YOUNG HWA

Pro-Democracy Activist

Professor Lee:  The people there were slaves. They could not speak out. They could not get information freely. They were told they could not move about freely. I thought they were slaves - miserable slaves.

10.27

Lee campaigning on street

Prof. Lee:  Please say "No" to the dictatorship of Kim Jong Il.

v/o:  There's no doubt Professor Lee Young Hwa would be executed were he in his homeland right now. The T-shirt alone would bring a death sentence.

Prof. Lee:  If we let in continue about a million children will starve to death because of his dictatorship.

Colgan watching Lee on street

v/o:  But he's also staging a mock election against Kim Jong Il, on the streets of Osaka, home to the largest Korean community in Japan.

He's behind a pro-democracy movement for North Korea, and he's been branded a traitor by the North Korean government. He claims his life has repeatedly been threatened, and as we film, so he's watched, he says, by Chongryun members.

11.24

He does have cause for concern. His last big demonstration here in Osaka brought violence.

11.39

Video footage of rally.

Prof. Lee:  Even before the I was told I'd be murdered. About 200 people attacked the rally - and I was the target of the attack. At that time I thought I'd be killed.

Market scene

Prof. Lee:  I think only a handful of people really believe the ideology. Most of them have brothers or parents or children who are held captive there and they can't leave Chongryun.

Prof. Lee

If they left Chongryun they'd never be able to meet their relatives again  or send any goods or money to them.

Dr Lee meets with woman on the street

v/o:  As he walks the Korean quarter, Professor Lee meets a woman who refuses to vote for him. She's a member of Chongryun, and is afraid to.

12.30

Prof. Lee with Colgan

Colgan:  How's it going?

Prof. Lee:  Because there are Chongryun members here, some people are voting for Kim Jong Il. But those who oppose him far out-number them.

Man on microphone:  A sweeping victory to Lee Young Hwa!

Colgan meets Prof. Lee on street

v/o:  A lecturer at Kansai University, Professor Lee once belonged to Chongryun, his father and other family members too.

13.19

Prof. Lee:  Because I belonged to Chongryun and my uncle was an executive member I received a recommendation from Chongryun -- and after a year, received permission to enter North Korea.

Lee and Colgan in corridor and enter office

v/o:  Along with thousands of others, Professor Lee's uncle, aunt and cousins returned to North Korea in the sixties, with visions of a promised land. He visited them in 1991.

Prof. Lee:  Visiting there, many things struck me for the first time -- it was not only very poor, but very unequal. Executives in the Workers' Party were enjoying good lives while ordinary people suffered miserable lives.

13.56

Prof. Lee with passport

v/o:  On his return he began campaigning against the North Korean government. Chongryun expelled him.

14.10

Prof. Lee

Prof. Lee:  Chongryun is a tool in the hands of a dictator - a device to prolong the dictatorship. They have been pouring in money and goods to keep the dictatorship going.

14.18

Pachinko parlour

v/o:  Much of the money according to multiple sources, comes from gambling. Many of Japan's 18,000 Pachinko parlours are owned by Koreans. Once a rough, dirty trade, Pachinko now rakes in the money, turning over around 250 billion dollars a year.

14.39

Prof. Lee:  One day I asked the owner of many pachinko parlours how much he donated. He told me he donated 300 million yen but his donation was smaller than others. He said the biggest donation was 1.5 billion yen. They carried suitcases filled with 10,000 yen notes.  Residents in Japan have to stop sending money to North Korea.

Prof. Lee

It doesn't help the people - rather it helps sustain the dictatorship and the suffering of the people.

Korean school class

v/o:  Back from his school visit ten days later, Song Jong Ryol has a glowing account of his trip to North Korea. It was fun he says, and the photos could be from any school trip, except for the backdrop.

15.42

Song Jong Ryol and class mate look at photos

Song Jong Ryol:  They may not be happy now but I could see they fully expect to become happy.

15.59

Kids playing football

Colgan:  Slipping comfortably back into his easy lifestyle in Tokyo, his rosy view of North Korea remains unaltered.

Song Jong Ryol:  North Korea is my fatherland - it has to exist. I need it. I thin North Korea knows the importance of the country's ongoing existence. I think we have to have a fatherland. In Japan, we have to have Chongryun.

16.19

Ends

16.38