A lawyer representing the pro-Pyongyang General Association of Korean Residents in Japan, or Chongryun, said Thursday no crime was involved in a deal to sell its Tokyo headquarters to an investment advisory firm headed by a former chief of the Public Security Intelligence Agency.
The comments by Koken Tsuchiya, 84, came just before police raided his office in Tokyo's Chuo Ward and a day after prosecutors raided the home and office of the agency's former director general, Shigetake Ogata, 73, on suspicion he registered the ownership transfer without paying for the building.
"It was not a disguised transfer, as we were serious about the transaction," Tsuchiya said Thursday. "Our action had nothing to do with any crime."