This is the second part of a three-part series by Andrei Lankov on how Zainichi Koreans shaped the history of the DPRK. You can read part one here.

In 1959 thousands of ethnic Koreans from Japan (often known as ‘Zainichi Koreans’) began to migrate to North Korea in large numbers. A total of 93,300 people moved between 1959-1984, but the vast majority boarded the ships in the early 1960s.

This massive migration from a developed capitalist nation to an impoverished communist one – arguably the only such migration in history – was initiated by Chongryon, a pro-Pyongyang association of