Japan court orders North Korea to pay $572,000 over repatriation scheme

A Tokyo court has ordered North Korea to pay 88 million yen (about $572,000) in damages to four North Korean defectors and relatives of victims living in Japan, over alleged human rights abuses linked to a decades-old repatriation program.

The plaintiffs told the court that those who moved to North Korea under the repatriation scheme were subsequently barred from leaving the country, effectively trapping them there, according to Jiji Press.

They said the program was promoted by Pyongyang as a “heaven on earth,” with promises of adequate food, clothing and housing that were never fulfilled.

Delivering judgment on Monday, presiding Judge Taiichi Kamino ruled that the case involved continuous illegal acts by the North Korean government against the plaintiffs.

“It is not an exaggeration to say that they were deprived of most of their lives,” Kamino said, noting that returnees were forced to endure harsh living conditions for long periods because they were not allowed to leave freely.

North Korea launched the repatriation program in 1959, seeking to attract overseas Koreans to address labour shortages after the Korean War.

At the time, the Japanese government viewed ethnic Koreans as outsiders and supported the initiative, which led to the relocation of more than 93,000 ethnic Korean residents, along with their Japanese family members, to North Korea.