North Korea Donates $500,000 in Disaster Relief to Pro-Pyongyang Zainichi Koreans
North Korean tyrant Kim Jong-il has sent some disaster relief money to help the Zainichi Korean community:
“Leader Kim Jong-il sent (a) relief fund of 500,000 U.S. dollars to Korean residents in Japan who suffered from the killer quake and tsunami happened there,” KCNA news agency said.
Half a million U.S. dollars is equivalent to the annual average income earned by 520 North Koreans in all of 2009, according to Bank of Korea data.
According to a Japanese language Yonhap News article, it seems that the money will be sent to Chosen Soren (Chongryon), the pro-Pyongyang Korean residents association in Japan. It is mentioned that North Korea donated $100,000 to Chosen Soren after the 2004 Niigata earthquake and $200,000 after the Great Hanshin Earthquake of 1995.
Apparently there is also a North Korean Red Cross Society, and it has donated $100,000 to the Japanese Red Cross Society. Unlike the donation to Chosen Soren, the Red Cross money might actually be used to help people who aren’t members of the association.
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