Chongryon - Ideology

Ideology

On their website, Chongryon claims that all their activities are based around the concept of Juche, the official state ideology of North Korea.

Chongryon says it is committed to a peaceful reunification of the Korean peninsula under North Korean Juche, and it does not recognise the Republic of Korea (South Korea). It refers to South Korea as Minami Chosen (Namjosŏn - "Southern Joseon"), as opposed to the usual term used in Japanese to refer to it: Kankoku (hanguk). (See Names of Korea).

Chongryon opposes the use of the Japanese word Kita-Chosen ("North Korea") as an abbreviation of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. It refers to the country as "kyowakoku" ("The Republic") or "sokoku" ("The Fatherland"). In 1972 Chongryon campaigned to get the Japanese media to stop referring to North Korea as Kita-Chosen. This effort was not successful, but as a compromise most media companies agreed to refer to the DPRK with its full official title at least once in every article. This policy was recently abandoned by most newspapers and TV stations, on the basis that other nations with naming issues such as South Korea (ROK) and Taiwan (ROC) aren't necessarily referred to by their official names.

Chongryon claims to be a representative body of overseas North Korean citizens living in Japan, and reject the notion that they are a mere ethnic minority.

Out of the two main Korean organisations in Japan, Chongryon has been the more militant in terms of advocating retention of Korean ethnic identity. It is generally opposed to Korean-Japanese integration into Japanese society; for example it discourages its members from naturalising as Japanese citizens, or marrying Japanese (which it calls an "international marriage"). It even goes as far as rejecting zainichi Koreans' right to vote or participate in Japanese regional elections, which it sees as an unacceptable attempt at assimilation into Japanese society. This is in contrast to Mindan, which is campaigning for wider zainichi Korean participation in Japanese politics.