A Japanese man angered over North Korea ’s incessant missile launches accosted two students studying at a Korean school in the central city of Yokkaichi and verbally abused them.
Mie prefecture governor Katsuyuki Ichimi, who denounced the incident, vowed to speed up efforts to publicise his government’s anti-discrimination code after the resident demanded the boys tell the country “not to shoot missiles”.
“There is no point in telling children that. It’s virtually abuse,” Ichimi told reporters on Wednesday (Nov 2).
The students were on their way to Yokkaichi Korean primary and junior secondary school when the confrontation happened on Oct 5, a day after Pyongyang fired a ballistic missile that flew over Japan . The launch forced Prime Minister Fumio Kishida ’s government to issue evacuation alerts and halt trains.
According to the Mainichi newspaper, a man in a suit approached two boys and their teacher at a railway station close to the school in the morning. He later mouthed off to the pair: “Tell them not to shoot missiles.”
The school reached out to the local police to escort the students on their commute until Oct 8.
Japanese media have reported a rise in anti-Korean hate incidents in the country amid North Korea’s escalating military provocations.
The Mainichi said Korean schools in Osaka prefecture rolled out weeks-long outreach activities last month in a bid to promote goodwill among local residents and reduce political animosity.
In August, a Japanese court sentenced a 23-year-old man to four years in prison for setting fire to empty houses in a community of Korean residents in Kyoto prefecture a year ago.
“[The act] was very selfish and based on prejudice and hatred toward zainichi (ethnic Korean residents) and Korean people – people of a particular background,” Judge Keisuke Masuda said.
North Korea has been ramping up its weapons demonstrations to a record pace this year. US and South Korean officials say Pyongyang may up the ante in the coming weeks with its first detonation of a nuclear test device since September 2017, as it exploits the distraction created by Russia’s war in Ukraine and a pause in diplomacy to denuclearise the isolated nation.
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