"They were denied basic human rights and forced to endure extreme hardship. Official promises of free education and healthcare plus guaranteed jobs and housing had been a cruel mirage. And to their horror, they were prevented from travelling to Japan to visit the families they had left behind. But this week, after years of campaigning, four settlers who had escaped to Japan secured justice when a court in Tokyo ordered the North Korean government to pay each of them at least 20m yen in compensation."
"Between 1959 and 1984, more than 90,000 people, mostly zainichi — the name for people of Korean descent who live in Japan — became the victims of an elaborate North Korean scheme to recruit workers and deal a propaganda blow to the north's former colonial occupier. A few, like Kawasaki, managed to flee and alert the world to what critics of the scheme say amounted to state-sanctioned kidnapping."
"The Tokyo high court has no way of enforcing the ruling in the case, in which it symbolically summoned the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, to testify. I'm sure the North Korean government will just ignore the court order, she said. Kenji Fukuda, a chief lawyer for the case, said the most realistic option to retrieve the money was to confiscate North Korean assets and property in Japan."
Eiko Kawasaki left Japan at 17 to settle in North Korea and became one of tens of thousands of Zainichi Koreans recruited between 1959 and 1984 by promises of free education, healthcare, jobs and housing. Recruited settlers experienced denial of basic rights, extreme hardship and restrictions on travel to Japan. Four escapees who returned to Japan secured a Tokyo high court ruling ordering North Korea to pay at least 20m yen each, though enforcement is not possible through the court. Legal options discussed include seizure of North Korean assets in Japan. An estimated 150 people escaped the programme and returned.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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