Chongryon, the North Korean-funded ethnic representative organisation for Koreans in Japan
Repatriation of Zainichi Koreans from Japan conducted under the auspices of the Japanese Red Cross began to receive official support from the Japanese government as early as 1956; a North Korean-sponsored repatriation programme with support of the Chōsen Sōren (The General Association of Korean Residents in Japan) officially began in 1959.
Targets included offices of the Japan Teachers Union, buildings in Osaka and Tokyo of the terrorist sect Aum Shinrikyo (which had perpetrated the sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway in 1995), the pro-North Korea Chongryon association, and in the only threat taken seriously by the Japanese police, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Hitoshi Tanaka, who had attempted rapprochement with North Korea in 2002.