JEAIL > Volume 17(2); 2024 > Digest
Research Paper
Published online: November 30, 2024
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.14330/jeail.2024.17.2.13

Addressing the “Paradise on Earth” Deception: The Quest for Justice for Migrants from Japan to North Korea

Andrew Wolman & Sumiko Miyatsuka
University of London
City Law School, Sebastian St, Northampton Square, London EC1V 0HB, UK.
Corresponding Author: Andrew.Wolman.2@city.ac.uk

ⓒ Copyright YIJUN Institute of International Law
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/liceInha University Law School, 100 Inharo, Michuhol-gu, Incheon 22212 Korea. / nses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract
During the period of 1959 to 1984, North Korean false propaganda led over 90,000 ethnic Koreans and their families to migrate from Japan to North Korea. Once in North Korea, the migrants suffered severe discrimination and human rights abuses. For decades, there was little prospect of justice for these abuses. In recent years, however, survivors of this migration who escaped North Korea have renewed efforts to gain some type of recognition and compensation. This note reviews three of these attempts: lawsuits in Japanese and South Korean courts, as well as a petition that was brought before the Korean Truth and Reconciliation Commission. While each of these avenues has helped bring to light the truth of North Korean deception, more work remains to be done with respect to collecating compensation.

Keywords : North Korea, Migration, Paradise on Earth, Zainichi Koreans, Human Rights, North Korean escapees

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