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KYOTO (Kyodo) -- Kyoto police are prepared to arrest several members of a Tokyo-based anti-Korea group for allegedly using a loudspeaker to disrupt lessons at a pro-Pyongyang school in Kyoto last year, police sources said Tuesday.

The police began questioning the members of the group called Zaitokukai, which is short for "zainichi tokken wo yurusanai shimin no kai (a group of citizens against providing special privileges to Korean residents in Japan)."

They are suspected of forcibly obstructing the business of another as prescribed under the Penal Code, the sources said.

The sources said the suspects allegedly staged an anti-Korea rally near the Kyoto No. 1 Korean primary school in Kyoto's Minami Ward on Dec. 4, 2009, and shouted slogans with the loudspeaker calling for kicking pro-Pyongyang schools out of Japan.

They also allegedly cut an electric cord linked with a speaker set up by the school at a park across the school, the sources said.

The Korean school filed a criminal complaint with the police on suspicion of forcible obstruction of the school's business and also of damaging the school's property.

In March this year, the Kyoto District Court issued a provisional order banning Zaitokukai from staging rallies around the Korean school.

The group however continued to stage anti-Korea rallies near the school. In May, the district court ordered Zaitokukai to pay 1 million yen per day to the Korean school if it staged a rally in violation of the provisional ruling.

Established in 2006, Zaitokukai opposes providing permanent residency status to Korean residents in Japan. It says its members total more than 9,000.

Nearly 600,000 Korean residents live in Japan. Most of them are descendants of Koreans who came or were forced to come to Japan during Japan's 1910-1945 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula. They are given permanent residency status.

Repeated bullying and harassment cases against children notably of pro-Pyongyang Korean residents have been reported particularly after North Korea's abduction of Japanese nationals came to light in the early 2000s.

The Penal Code sets penalties of imprisonment of up to three years or a fine of up to 500,000 yen for those who obstruct the business of another. It also sets punishment of imprisonment of up to three years or a fine of up to 300,000 yen for those who damaged or injured others' property.