Pro-Pyongyang Korean schools unlikely to be tuition-free: Hatoyama+

TOKYO, Feb. 25 Kyodo - Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama suggested Thursday that pro-Pyongyang senior high schools for Korean residents are unlikely to be covered by a proposed tuition fee exemption program due to difficulties checking their curriculum against
Japanese guidelines.

''When we can't necessarily see the teaching content at the Chosen gakko
(pro-Pyongyang schools) and what they are teaching, I see Minister Nakai's idea
as one (that merits consideration),'' Hatoyama told reporters.
Hiroshi Nakai, state minister in charge of abduction issues involving North
Korea, has called for excluding the schools from the program.
''I've heard it's likely to go in that direction, but we're putting final
touches to the matter,'' the prime minister said.
The House of Representatives began deliberations the same day on a bill to
waive tuition fees at public senior high schools.
Under the plan, about 120,000 yen per annum would be provided from April to a
student who attends a school that is regarded as equivalent to senior high
school.
Under a plan now being floated, education officials must be able to confirm
that classes offered at schools for foreigners in Japan and the curriculum in
the home country are largely in compliance with Japan's official education
guidelines if the schools are to be eligible for the proposed program.
The pro-Pyongyang schools would be excluded on the grounds that Japan is unable
to confirm the curriculum in North Korea due to the lack of diplomatic
relations between the two countries, according to people familiar with the
matter.
In advocating the exclusion, Nakai has cited the fact that Japan has applied
economic sanctions on North Korea, with which many of their students are
affiliated. The sanctions have been imposed on the country in view of the
abduction issue and the country's nuclear weapons and missile programs.
Education minister Tatsuo Kawabata has said his ministry will not take
diplomatic considerations into account when deciding on whether to apply the
program to pro-Pyongyang schools, noting that a ministry rule on the criteria
for subsidy provision would be determined after the legislation is enacted.
The tuition-free initiative was promised by the ruling Democratic Party of
Japan in last summer's general election campaign, along with giving monthly
allowances to child-raising families and making expressways toll-free.
At present, there are 73 Chosen gakko schools across Japan whose educational
activities have been authorized by prefectural governments, according to the
ministry.
Of the 73, 12 schools, called ''kokyu gakko,'' are the equivalent of Japanese
high schools. The 73 have been operated in close collaboration with the
pro-Pyongyang General Association of Korean Residents in Japan.
==Kyodo