N. Korea urges Japan to include Korean schools in tuition aid+

PYONGYANG, April 17 Kyodo -
A senior North Korean official urged Japan on Saturday to include pro-Pyongyang
schools in Japan in a tuition waiver program for high school students ''as
early as possible.''
Song Il Ho, ambassador for normalization talks with Japan, indicated that North
Korea may resume dialogue with the government of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama
if it accepts Pyongyang's request.
''If the new government launches fresh policy initiatives, we would feel that
we should respond to such a change,'' Song told Kyodo News in Pyongyang,
referring to Hatoyama's seven-month-old government.
''We are closely watching the Hatoyama government's policy on Pyongyang,'' he
said. ''We still have expectations (on the tuition waiver program).''
Under the program, which took effect April 1, Japanese public senior high
school students are exempted from tuition, while private and other schools
equivalent to high schools receive an annual 118,800 yen to 237,600 yen per
student in accordance with their household income.
But the government postponed a decision on whether to include pro-Pyongyang
schools, which have close ties with the General Association of Korean Residents
in Japan, or Chongryon, in the program after a House of Councillors election
slated for July.
Song criticized such action, saying, ''Korean residents in Japan pay taxes like
Japanese citizens. We don't understand why the Japanese government extends
tuition aid to other types of schools, but not to pro-Pyongyang schools.''
''This is not simply a financial matter, but it represents serious
discrimination against Koreans,'' he said. ''This imposes severe psychological
oppression on Korean children in Japan, making them feel they are being
discriminated against and giving them a sense of loneliness.''
The ambassador stressed that education must be treated differently from
politics and diplomacy. ''How would you feel if your children are forced to
develop a sense of discrimination and oppression when they are abroad?'' he
asked.
Given that Korean students in Japan are descendants of Koreans who were
forcibly taken to the country during Japan's 1910-1945 colonial rule of the
Korean Peninsula, Song said the Japanese government must give priority to
Korean schools in Japan when introducing a system such as the tuition waiver
program.
Song refuted some Japanese politicians who express displeasure about the
display of portraits of North Korean founder Kim Il Sung and leader Kim Jong Il
in classrooms at pro-Pyongyang schools in Japan.
''How would the Japanese people feel if we visit the Japanese parliament and
tell lawmakers to remove pictures of Japanese prime ministers in the past?'' he
said.
''It is natural that children learn about history, thought, geography and
social customs of their countries,'' he said.
Referring to a recent Cabinet decision to extend Japan's sanctions against
North Korea for one year, Song said the Democratic Party of Japan-led
government appears to ''follow the unfriendly policy stance toward Pyongyang
pursued by the (now opposition) Liberal Democratic Party.''
But the ambassador said that unlike the LDP-ruled period, no Cabinet ministers
except Hiroshi Nakai, minister in charge of the abduction issue, have made
remarks that offend North Korea.
==Kyodo