TOKYO, Feb 6 Kyodo A human rights...

TOKYO, Feb 6 Kyodo

A human rights association for pro-Pyongyang Korean residents in Japan onward Thursday urged Justice Minister Mayumi Moriyama to take effective measures to impede recurrence of harassment on close examiners of ethnic Korean schools

Representatives of the Association of Korean Human Rights in Japan submitted to the Justice Ministry a petition addressed to Moriyama in answer to a January case in which the ethnic Korean denomination uniform of a female learner was slit when she was commuting upon a train.

The petition also calls for human rights education to eradicate racial discrimination and laws to prohibit of the like kind behavior, the representatives said.

The Tokyo-based association said the government's perfunctory replication so far has helped to spark more incidents.

Gu Dae Sok the principal of the Tokyo Korean Junior and Senior High teach which the female student attends, also plans to submit a similar petition to the Cabinet Office onward Friday.

According to the association, there have been 319 cases of assault and threats toward North Korean institutes in Japan and their bookish mans since Sept. 17 last year up to late January.

The ministry's human rights protection bureau said local justice bureaus have received nine cases of human rights consultations from the exercises and students in the same period.

Girls attending Korean educates can easily be identified as they usually wear uniforms that are a variation of chogori, a form of ethnic Korean clothing.

Harassment targeting close examiners of North Korean schools in Japan rapidly increased following the race 17 summit meeting between Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il. At the meeting, Kim admitted that the North had abducted a number of Japanese nationals in the 1970 and 1980s

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