2023-10-30 17:33:05
TOKYO (AP) — North Korea’s government is responsible for violating the human rights of four plaintiffs who said they were lured to North Korean territory by Pyongyang’s false promise of living in a “paradise on Earth,” a higher court has found. Japanese on Monday.
“The ruling demonstrated that a Japanese court can rule on human rights violations committed by North Korea, something that might have a significant impact,” said the plaintiffs’ lawyer, Kenji Fukuda.
The four plaintiffs, including Koreans and Japanese, moved to North Korea along with thousands of others under a program from 1959 to 1984 in which the North Korean government promised free health care, education, jobs and other benefits. But they said none of that was available and they were mostly assigned manual labor in mines, forests or farms and forced to live in poor conditions.
Five people originally filed the lawsuit in 2018 with the Tokyo District Court seeking 100 million yen ($900,000) each as compensation for “illegal instigation and detention.”
The district court acknowledged in a March 2022 ruling that the plaintiffs had moved to North Korea due to false information provided by Pyongyang and a pro-North Korean organization in Japan, Chongryon. But the ruling stressed that the statute of limitations had expired and that Japanese courts have no jurisdiction because the plaintiffs’ suffering took place outside Japan.
Four plaintiffs appealed the decision, arguing that Japan has jurisdiction because their ordeal began when they boarded ships in a Japanese port.
On Monday, the Tokyo High Court ruled that the Japanese court had jurisdiction over the case and concluded that the North Korean government violated the plaintiffs’ rights by forcing them to live in squalid and harsh conditions that were completely different from the information provided to their parents. trips.
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