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© Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.Residents of Japan seek compensation from N Korea for abuses
By MARI YAMAGUCHI TOKYO©2023 GPlusMedia Inc.
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Fighto!
A purely symbolic move as there is zero chance they will receive even one yen.
cenobite
These compensation claims, from Korea , or from Japan, or from Japanese Americans etc., are important for the people , and they should be pursued the legal route, but they shouldn’t be headline news anymore. It’s just not interesting anymore to your average reader, would be my presumption
Samit Basu
Actually the plaintiffs should sue Japanese government, not North Korean government which has a state immunity and cannot be sued anyway.
Basically, the Japanese government actively promoted North Korea as a paradise to Zainichi to get rid of them even though Japanese government knew the full truth about the reality in North Korea, and shipped out even 3,000 Japanese wives to North Korea as Japanese government considered that an acceptable price of getting rid of Zainichi.
Thus it is the Japanese government that's really responsible for promoting the Zainichi relocation program and must be held responsible.
Gaijinjland
I wish I could demand 100 million JPay compensation for the dumb things I did of my own volition in my youth!
Gaijinjland
Wish I could demand 100 million JPY compensation*
Disillusioned
But! These fools went there voluntarily. What did they expect in North Korea? Free kimuchi and umeshu for life? It's not as if they were kidnapped and forced to work in mines. It is there own fault for being so stupid.
Eastman
chance they get anything is real zero.
Andy
Some people make bad choices in life, these folks certainly did.
OssanAmerica
Yes, symbolic only. Even residents in NK can't get compensation from NK for abuses.
Rodney
NK should demand for compensation from effects of sanctions.
deanzaZZR
According to a NYTs article I just read 93,000 mostly ethnic Koreans went to North Korea in the program co-sponsored by the governments of Japan and North Korea and coordinated by the Red Cross. What a terrible decision to have made but many families had roots in North Korea and they were swayed by the propaganda.
Samit Basu
@deanzaZZR
Exactly, this is why Japanese government is responsible for sponsoring and organizing this Zainichi repatriation program.
Samit Basu
https://japansociology.com/2011/12/16/repatriation-program/
jeancolmar
My sympathies go out to the families of North Korean abductees. No matter how much North Korea suffered in the Bombing of North Korea it is no excuse to abduct or lure innocent people to that country. ( Above writers have mentioned Japan complicity in luring N. Korean residents to N.K.)
However NK's victims push for compensation it is doubtful compensations are forthcoming. NK is it own wound to heal.
The Bombing of North Korea reduced that country to the proverbial mud puddle. Wikipedia quotes: "Dean Rusk, the U.S. State Department official who headed East Asian affairs, concluded that America had bombed 'everything that moved in North Korea, every brick standing on top of another'.[22]. With agriculture destroyed, the people of NK would starved were in not for the help of the Communist countries.
NK is not happy country because of its past.
jeancolmar
Lousy opening sentence above. It should read, "My sympathies go out to the families of all victims abducted by North Korea."
MilesTeg
OssanAmerica
They shouldn't have invaded South Korea killing 1,000,000 civilians then. Or does that kind of argument only apply to Japanese cities being bombed?
Shane Sommerville
great Idea but good luck in getting any compensation from NK.