Protests greet North Korean ferry in Nigata

A North Korean ferry sailed into the Japanese port of Niigata on Monday to a cacophony of protests only 48 hours before talks about Pyongyang's nuclear weapons programme were due to open in Beijing.

The arrival of the Mangyongbong-92, the only direct link between Japan and North Korea, has provoked bitter resentment in Japan where people are still seething after last year's admission by Pyongyang that it kidnapped Japanese citizens to train its spies.

There are claims that the boat, which has not visited Japan since January, has been used to smuggle drugs, counterfeit money and parts for missiles.

Tension has mounted in Japan ahead of Wednesday's six-way talks, which will also include the US, China, South Korea and Russia. On Sunday night, bomb threats were directed at two Japanese organisations with links to North Korea, and a bullet was fired at another.

Tokyo is determined to raise the matter of abductions at Wednesday's talks in addition to the overriding issue of Pyongyang's threat to develop nuclear weapons. Japan says it will not provide economic aid to North Kirea, a vital part of any deal with the communist state, before Pyongyang has released children of abductees still in North Korea.

The boxy, white-hulled Mangyongbong slid into Niigata port with Japanese punctuality at 8am yesterday, blaring marching music dedicated to Kim Jong-il, North Korea’s Dear Leader. Some of the 74 crew and 34 passengers waved the red-starred Korean flag at a greeting party of Korean residents gathered at the dockside.

Celebrations were drowned out by supporters of abductees who exhorted them to “Go Home”, as well as by the drone of media helicopters overhead. Further away, behind a cordon of about 1,500 baton-carrying police, the black vans of Japan's ultra-nationalists blared war-time propaganda songs. Tadashi Takahashi, a Niigata assemblyman, said, “it's an insult to the Japanese public that this boat is being allowed in today. Neither the adduction nor the nuclear issue has been solved yet. It's too soon for this.”

Japanese media reported that North Korean-bound cargo, due to leave with the ship on Tuesday, included seven cars, two second-hand trucks, videos, audio equipment and several tonnes of marbled Japanese beef produced from cows that are massaged and fed on beer. “Most North Koreans are suffering, but a few can afford this kind of luxuries,” said Mr Takahashi.

At the nearby Hana Credit Union, a bank that lends mainly to ethnic Koreans living in Japan, Ryang Su-dok, deputy branch manager, said the Japanese public's view of North Korea was simplistic. A bomb was placed outside his bank in July. The mainly female staff, all born and brought up in Japan, were too scared to wear traditional Korean dresses and had switched to beige uniforms, he said.

“Because of the abduction issue, I suppose it's natural that Japanese people feel this way,” said Mr Ryang whose father was forced to work in Japan during its 35-year occupation of the Korean peninsula. He added, “this is not the time for us to bring up bigger issues like Japan's colonial past or its use of Korean women as prostitutes. We have to stay quiet.” Mr Ryang, who travelled on the Mangyongbong to visit his North Korean uncle in the early 1990s, said the ship was a lifeline between the two communities. “Because there are no diplomatic relations, this is the only link we have.”