Japan court orders compensation for migrants lured to North Korea

A Tokyo court has asked Pyongyang to pay 88 million Japanese yen ($570,000; £416,000) to four people who were lured to North Korea decades ago by a propaganda scheme.

The plaintiffs said the North was marketed to them as “paradise on Earth”, but they instead found themselves subject to harsh conditions, including forced labour. They later escaped.

Monday’s ruling is largely symbolic with no real way to enforce it: North Korea has for years ignored the lawsuit, and its leader Kim Jong Un has not responded to Japanese court summons.

But the ruling, which comes after a years-long legal battle in Japanese courts, has been hailed by the plaintiffs’ lawyer as “historic”.

This was the first time “a Japanese court exercised its sovereignty against North Korea to recognise its malpractice”, said Atsushi Shiraki, a lawyer representing the plaintiffs, AFP reported.

More than 90,000 Zainichi Koreans – ethnic Koreans who live in Japan – moved to North Korea between 1959 and 1984, under a resettlement scheme which promised an idyllic life of free healthcare, education and jobs.

But instead survivors say they found themselves forced to work on farms and factories, subject to restrictions and could not leave.

One of the plaintiffs, Eiko Kawasaki, went to North Korea in 1960, when she was 17. She escaped in 2003 and is now 83 years old.

In 2022, a Tokyo district court rejected their compensation claims, saying that it fell outside Japanese jurisdiction and the statute of limitations had expired.

But in 2023, the Tokyo High Court ruled that the case was in fact under Japanese jurisdiction and found that North Korea had violated the plaintiffs’ rights.

“It’s not an overstatement to say most of their lives were ruined by North Korea,” judge Taiichi Kamino said at a ruling at the Tokyo District Court on Monday, according to an Associated Press report.

Kenji Fukuda, another lawyer for the plaintiffs acknowledged the significance of the ruling but said it would be a “challenge” actually getting any money from North Korea.