The government-backed Resolution and Collection Corp. will file a civil lawsuit with the Tokyo District Court to seek the return of 62.8 billion yen from a North Korean group, sources said Tuesday.
RCC has concluded that among the bad loans it took over from 16 failed North Korea-linked credit unions, loans for personal and corporate customers worth 62.8 billion yen in 394 cases were actually made to the General Association of Korean Residents (Chongryun), the sources said.
Chongryun has acknowledged the loans from the credit unions come to the same amount. RCC decided to sue to collect the debt quickly and smoothly, the sources said.
RCC took over 200 billion yen in assets from the Pyongyang-linked credit unions, including Chogin Osaka Credit Cooperative, after they were placed under government control in the late 1990s.
A total of 1.4 trillion yen in public funds were injected into seven North Korea-related credit unions that took over assets from 16 fellow unions that had gone bankrupt.