Lee Su-Hyun has written an article that discusses a lawsuit brought by four North Koreans, in a South Korean court, over an inheritance. The four claim that a share of their father’s inheritance is due them even though their father escaped North Korea and remarried in the south. This case does have legal implications for the future if both Koreas reunify since issues are bound to occur. The South Korean Supreme Court has already decided that North Korean citizens have legal rights in South Korea.
Legal Unification . . .
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If they use it in a clever way (and without pressing too hard), such claims might become another important source of income for the NK government.
. . . my thoughts exactly, which is why, if these bums are awarded anything, I would pay them in 10-Won coins, after all, this is South Korea.
I never liked these unprincipled quarrels over inheritance anyhow since it is about the money only.
I really wonder if these kind of granting of legal rights, in South Korea, to North Koreans, is opening a Pandora’s box of ills since these rights seem to be granted without any clear definition of how they could/would be used. Does this mean that Kim Jong-Il could sue the Chosun Ilbo for libel, for example?
I doubt it, Andrei. As we speak, the attorneys for the U.S.S. Pueblo survivors are hunting for North Korean assets to satisfy a $65 million judgment that a U.S. Court recently awarded them. I’ve read the judgment in the case, and it holds that North Korea isn’t protected by the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act. I’d add that the court’s description of the way the Pueblo crewmen suffered and resisted is both inspiring and heartbreaking. The judgment is final, with all appellate deadlines exhausted. North Korea never contested the case. The judgment is for roughly twice the amount of the settlement the North Koreans recently reached with Allianz and Lloyds in the UK reinsurance litigation. There is case law supporting the right of a litigant to collect an unsatified judgment against third parties, including in foreign countries that recognize the judgment, and also including other judgments owed to the debtor. Judging by the information I found on the internet, South Korea routinely recognizes and enforces U.S. court judgments in its own courts, and vice versa. So even if some North Koreans can pursue this novel new economic option, it had better be for at least $65M for it to cancel out the effects of the Pueblo plaintiffs potentially attaching other NK assets.
Jodi also wrote about this new lawsuit, by the way.
The mechanics of trial may prove a problem. Will the DPRK allow the North Korean heir to go South and testify?
Will the South Korean courts take North Korean birth certificates at face value?
One poster above senses this could be a North Korean cottage industry. They could manufacture long lost uncles and aunts at will.
I can’t see it being a two-way street. No one but the State owns anything in the North.
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