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U.S. court orders North Korea to pay $330M for abduction victim

In the unlikely event North Korea agrees to comply with the verdict, the law group suing on behalf of the victim will seize frozen North Korea assets in order to deliver the compensation.

By Elizabeth Shim

WASHINGTON, April 20 (UPI) -- The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia has ordered North Korea to pay $330 million in indemnities for the kidnapping of a Korean American pastor in 2000.

The missing man, Kim Dong-shik, was abducted in northeastern China, The New York Times reported, as he helped North Koreans in China escape to a third country.

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Kim's family was left without a clue to his whereabouts until five years later, when a Chinese national on trial in Seoul confessed to abetting the abduction of Kim and at least 17 others from China to North Korea.

The verdict delivered earlier this month brings the total damages North Korea owes to victims to a total of $777 million, reported Yonhap. These include other lawsuits filed in the United States on behalf of victims of North Korea human rights abuses.

Kim Dong-shik's family filed the lawsuit in 2009, and an Israeli civic group, Shurat HaDin, filed the suit on behalf of the pastor's family.

In the unlikely event North Korea agrees to comply with the verdict, Shurat HaDin will seize frozen North Korea assets in order to deliver the compensation Chief Judge Richard W. Roberts ordered North Korea pay to Kim's brother Yong-seok Kim and his son Han Kim.

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The lawsuit was initially dismissed for lack of evidence North Korea had tortured then killed Kim but an appeals court overturned that ruling in December on the basis of testimony from witnesses of North Korean human rights abuses in prison camps.

The law group Shura HaDin said the court decision marks the first time that an American court has concluded that a foreign regime that abducts an individual who is then never heard from again has the burden of proving that he has not been murdered.

Do Hee-youn who heads an abductees rights group in Seoul, told The New York Times the verdict could help trigger a floodgate of lawsuits against the North Korean government, especially from the families of Japanese whose members have been kidnapped to North Korea.

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