A shot was fired into a local facility of the pro-Pyongyang General Association of Korean Residents in Japan (Chongryun) and a suspected bomb was found near a credit union linked to North Korean residents, police said Wednesday.
Police acted after the daily Asahi Shimbun received a call at around 10:55 p.m. Tuesday from a man who claimed to be a member of a group calling itself Kenkoku Giyugun (Patriotic Corps for Building the Nation). He told the newspaper's head office in Tokyo that a gun had been fired at the Chongryun office and a bomb was planted at the local Korean bank.
A similar phone call was made to the headquarters of the local daily Niigata Nippo. Both callers spoke in standard Japanese without local accents and sounded young, Asahi and Niigata Nippo workers who took the calls told the police.
Niigata Prefectural Police then found a paper bag containing an apparent explosive device near the Niigata branch of Hana Credit Union, a local bank serving pro-Pyongyang Korean residents here.