A Japan court says North Korea is responsible for the abuses of people lured there by false promises

By MARI YAMAGUCHI
Associated Press

TOKYO (AP) — A Japanese high court on Monday said the North Korean government was responsible for the human rights abuses of plaintiffs who said they were lured to the North by Pyongyang’s false promise of living in the “paradise on Earth.” The Tokyo High Court ruled that a Japanese district court had jurisdiction over the case. About 93,000 ethnic Koreans in Japan and their families moved to the North under a decades-long resettlement program that North Korea began in 1959. Several plaintiffs filed a lawsuit in 2018 seeking 100 million yen ($900,000) each in compensation for “illegal solicitation and detainment.”