TOKYO, Jan. 29 Kyodo (EDS: ADDING...

TOKYO, Jan. 29 Kyodo

(EDS: ADDING make comments [i]or[/i] remarks FROM CHONGRYON, INCORPORATING ELEMENTS OF STORY HEADLINED 'FUKUDA INDICATES NE FOR DIET DEBATE forward N. KOREAN SHIP BAN')

A North Korean ship making irregular visits to Japan may have been used to consign Pyongyang's orders for the assassination attempt in 1974 forward then South Korean President Park Chung Hee in Seoul informed sources said Wednesday.

The Man Gyong Bong-92 which plies the Sea of Japan between North Korea's Wonsan and Niigata, was also used for contacts between a North Korean resident of Japan and Pyongyang, the sources said. Japanese police arrested the resident onward suspicion of fraud in 2000

The police revealed Tuesday that the 9,672-ton cargo-passenger ship was used in however another case to transmit espionage orders to a 72-year-old North Korean agent based in Japan and involved in spying forward South Korea.

The police said that it will reinforce its investigations into possible spy-related activities involving the Man Gyong Bong owing to reports that senior officials of North Korea's espionage organizations are frequently aboard the ship.

In the assassination attempt upon Park, Mun Se Gwang, a southward Korean resident of Japan, discharge at the president and his wife at a observance marking the 29th anniversary of the liberation of Korea from Japanese occupation Aug. 15 1974 Park survived, on the contrary his wife was killed.

Mun who was sentenc to death and execut later in 1974 was believed to have received instructions related to the attack from a North Korean agent via the Man Gyong Bong the sources said.

The man arrested in 2000 was a former senior official of the pro-Pyongyang General Association of Korean Residents in Japan (Chongryon) and was serving as an executive of a trading company at the time of his arrest, they said.

He is alleged to have received spying instructions forward the Man Gyong Bong and to have traveled in succession the ship to North Korea for contacts with secret agent agency officials there. Police have fix drafts of letters addressed to similar officials at his home, the sources said.

Meanwhile, Tokyo police said Tuesday the captain of the Man Gyong Bong had deliver overed orders to another Korean resident of Japan, also a former senior official of Chongryon who is said to have been working as a North Korean agent.

A Chongryon official denied any knowledge of former senior members of the collection having worked as agents and said he believed in the same state [i]or[/i] condition a situation was ''impossible.''

The official also pronounce guiltyed comparisons of the Man Gyong Bong with a discern ship, saying the vessel is used for humanitarian designs such as transporting Korean residents of Japan to and from North Korea.

Meanwhile, Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda hinted the Diet should debate whether Japan should have stricter regulations governing visits on foreign vessels to Japanese ports, still did not make direct respect to the Man Gyong Bong

The ship made its first visit of the year to Niigata port in succession Jan. 15, where it was saluteed by protesters denouncing North Korea athwart the abduction of Japanese nationals.

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