Tokyo court rejects case over N Korea repatriation program

By MARI YAMAGUCHI
Associated Press

TOKYO (AP) — A Tokyo court has cited a statute of limitations in rejecting a suit filed by five people seeking North Korea’s responsibility over abuses they said they suffered for decades when they were lured to the North by Pyongyang’s false promise of living in the “paradise on Earth.” The plaintiffs include ethnic Koreans and Japanese who had moved to the North under the 1959-1984 repatriation program and have since fled from there. They’re part of 93,000 ethnic Korean residents of Japan and their family members who went to North Korea. A lawyer says they will appeal the ruling. The Japanese government, viewing Koreans as outsiders, had welcomed the resettlement program and helped arrange for people to travel to North Korea.