North Korean defectors in Tokyo symbolically summon Kim Jong-un to court over a repatriation programme, saying they were promised “paradise on Earth'
The plaintiffs are asking $900,000 each in damages, accusing Pyongyang of"deceiving plaintiffs by false advertising to relocate to North Korea", where"the enjoyment of human rights was generally impossible".A Japanese court is hearing from five people who say they were promised “paradise on Earth” in North Korea but, instead, suffered from human rights violations.
The hearing on Thursday became possible after the Tokyo District Court in August agreed to summon Kim Jong-un to speak, according to Kenji Fukuda, a lawyer representing the plaintiffs. Part of the defectors' complaint concerns separation from their families still trapped in the isolated country. North Korea had promised free healthcare, education, jobs and other benefits, but none was available and the returnees were mostly assigned manual work at mines, forests or farms, one of the plaintiffs, Kawasaki, 79, a Korean who was born and raised in Japan, said last month.
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