South Korea court orders North to compensate 2 veterans
A court in South Korea has issued a verdict ordering North Korea to pay compensation to two former prisoners of war (POWs).
The Seoul Central District Court on Tuesday ruled that the two POWs had spent much of their lives doing forced labor in the North and Pyongyang had to pay each 21 million won (17,500 dollars) in compensation, a court spokeswoman told AFP.
Following the ruling, a rights group supporting the veterans said it would take legal action to seize North Korea’s assets under Seoul’s control, such as copyright fees for Pyongyang’s state TV. Beyond that, the ruling is incapable of forcing any action.
Reportedly, the two South Korean veterans — who were named in media reports only by their last names: Han, 87, and Ro, 90 — were captured by Northern forces during the 1950-53 Korean War.
The two men alleged in the court that after a ceasefire ended the war, they were not repatriated, and were instead sent to coal mines and other facilities, where they worked for North Korea for decades, until they managed to escape and return to the South.
They allegedly returned to South Korea about a decade ago and filed a lawsuit in 2016, demanding that the North Korean government pay them compensations for what they described as “enormous mental and physical damage.”
In 1953, when the Korean War ended with a ceasefire, there was an estimated 170,000 North Korean and Chinese POWs held in the custody of the US-led forces, as well as an estimated 100,000 POWs of the US-led coalition forces, including South Koreans, who were held by the North.
While South Korea started diplomacy with the North in January 2018, bilateral interaction is gradually returning to its usual mode of hostility.
The two Koreas are still technically at war because a peace treaty was never signed after the Korean War.
Meanwhile, North Korea has also distanced itself from negotiations with the United States, which began after mediation by the South.
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