North Korean defectors in Tokyo symbolically summoned Kim Jong Un to court on Thursday over a repatriation program they describe as “state kidnapping.”
The unusual case is a bid to hold Pyongyang responsible for a scheme that saw more than 90,000 people move to North Korea from Japan between 1959 and 1984.
The program mainly targeted ethnic Koreans but also their Japanese spouses, lured by fantastical propaganda promising a “paradise on Earth.”
Five participants in the repatriation scheme who later escaped from North Korea are demanding 100 million yen ($880,000) each in damages as they make their case in the Tokyo District Court.
They have accused Pyongyang of “deceiving plaintiffs by false advertising to relocate to North Korea,” where “the enjoyment of human rights was generally impossible.”
As there are no diplomatic relations between Japan and North Korea, Kim has been summoned as the head of the North’s government.
“We don’t expect North Korea to accept a decision nor pay the damages,” Kenji Fukuda, the plaintiffs’ lawyer, said at a briefing last month.
“But we hope that the Japanese government will be able to negotiate with North Korea” if the court rules in the plaintiffs’ favor, he added.
