, for embezzling 837 million yen from the failed Chogin Tokyo Credit Union for the North Korea-affiliated group.
The high court dismissed an appeal filed against the Tokyo District Court sentence handed down in March last year against Kang Young Kwan, 70, found guilty of embezzling the money from the now-defunct credit union on 13 occasions between 1994 and 1998 using credit union accounts under an assumed name.
In that period, Kang transferred funds, which Chongryun was supposed to pay Chogin as interest for its loans, to the accounts and used the money for Chongryun's activities.
Kang pleaded not guilty at the district and high courts, claiming he was unaware of the existence of the bank accounts and was not involved in the embezzlement.