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A6 WORLD NEWS
Thursday 24 March 2022
Tokyo court rejects case over N. Korea repatriation program

By MARI YAMAGUCHI reans home to make up for
Associated Press workers killed in the Korean
TOKYO (AP) — A Tokyo War. The program contin-
court cited a statute of ued to seek recruits, many
limitations on Wednes- of them originally from
day in rejecting a suit filed South Korea, until 1984.
by five people seeking The Japanese govern-
North Korea’s responsibil- ment, viewing Koreans as
ity over abuses they said outsiders, also welcomed
they suffered for decades the resettlement program
when they were lured to and helped arrange for
the North by Pyongyang’s people to travel to North
false promise of living in the Korea. About 93,000 ethnic
“paradise on Earth.” Korean residents of Japan
The five plaintiffs, including and their family members
ethnic Koreans and Japa- responded and moved to
nese who had moved to North Korea.
the North under the 1959- The plaintiffs say they be-
1984 repatriation program lieve many of them have
and have since fled from died, but their descendants
there, filed the lawsuit in still in North Korea should
2018 seeking 100 million yen be rescued. About 150 of
($900,000) each in com- them have made it back
pensation over what they Plaintiffs and their supporters walk toward the Tokyo District Court in Tokyo, Wednesday, March to Japan, according to a
said was illegal “solicitation 23, 2022. Associated Press group supporting defectors
and detainment.” from the North.
In Wednesday’s ruling, the their “detainment” in North ruling. Not being able to future on seeking Pyong- North Korea had promised
Tokyo District Court focused Korea. see the verdict while we yang’s responsibility. The free health care, educa-
on whether the court had Kenji Fukuda, a lawyer rep- are alive means I die with- court had also agreed to tion, jobs and other bene-
jurisdiction over the case resenting the plaintiffs, said out being able to see my symbolically summon North fits, but none was available
while staying away from they decided to appeal children and grandchil- Korean leader Kim Jong Un. and the returnees were
clearly stating whether because “the court didn’t dren” still in the North, she Hundreds of thousands of mostly assigned manual
the repatriation program, respond to the case head added. Koreans came to Japan, work at mines, forests or
which Japan’s govern- on.” Fukuda said the court did many forcibly, to work in farms, the plaintiffs said.
ment also helped with, was “I feel like crying,” said a accept most evidence the mines and factories during Kawasaki, born and raised
illegal. plaintiff, Eiko Kawasaki, 79, plaintiffs submitted, includ- Japan’s colonization of the in Kyoto, was 17 when she
Instead, the court rejected an ethnic-Korean who was ing the deceptive cam- Korean Peninsula — a past took a ship to the North in
the case noting the plain- born and raised in Japan paign held in Japan for that still strains relations be- 1960 and was confined
tiffs waited too long to take and went to the North in the repatriation and living tween Japan and the Ko- there until defecting in
legal action. The plaintiffs 1960. “There should be no conditions in the North — reas. 2003, leaving behind her
went to North between statute of limitations for hu- setting a precedent for a Today, about half a million grown children.
1960 and 1972, and the 20- man rights violations.” legal case in Japan against ethnic Koreans live in Ja- The plaintiffs are now con-
year statute of limitations Kawasaki also urged the North Korea over human pan and still face discrimi- cerned about their families
had passed by the time court for a speedy trial be- rights violations. nation in school, work and still in North Korea. They say
they filed the case, it said. cause time was limited for Fukuda urged the Japa- daily lives. they had lost contact with
Judge Akihiro Igarashi also the elderly plaintiffs. nese government to sup- In 1959, North Korea began them more than two years
said that a Japanese court “It has to be done quickly port the victims and negoti- a massive resettlement pro- ago, apparently due to the
had no jurisdiction over or we won’t be alive for a ate with North Korea in the gram to bring overseas Ko- pandemic.q

Nicaragua’s OAS ambassador says

own government dictatorship

dent Daniel Ortega. Arturo sible is impossible,” said own people,” Freden said.
McFields said during an McFields, who until now OAS Secretary-General Luis
online meeting of the OAS had defended Ortega’s Almagro, a frequent critic
that he was speaking on government when it was of Ortega, sent a tweet
behalf of “more than 177 criticized by members of saying he valued McFields’
political prisoners and more the OAS. courage, adding, “This is
than 350 people that have The statement was praised the ethically correct posi-
lost their lives in my country by the U.S. delegate at the tion.”
since 2018.” He said he was meeting, Bradley Freden, McFields, the first Afro-Ni-
frightened to speak against called McFields “a Nicara- caraguan to represent his
Residents watch the inauguration of President Daniel Ortega on Ortega’s government, but guan patriot.” country before the OAS, is
a giant screen at a park in the Julio Buitrago neighborhood of said he “had to talk even “I hope that the govern- a former journalist who had
Managua, Nicaragua, Jan. 10, 2022. if my future and that of my ment in Nicaragua is listen- worked at Nicaragua’s em-
Associated Press
family is now uncertain.” ing and takes away the bassy and its OAS mission
NEW YORK (AP) — Nicara- own government as a “dic- “To denounce the dicta- right message: that if they — both in Washington —
gua’s ambassador to the tatorship” on Wednesday torship of my country is not continue down the same before presenting his cre-
Organization of the Ameri- in a dramatic break with easy but to keep silent and path, they cannot help but dentials as ambassador on
can States denounced his the administration of Presi- to defend what is indefen- lose the support of their Nov. 5.q