Court rules in favor of veterans seeking compensation from N.K. leader over 2002 skirmish

All News 17:13 August 24, 2022

SEOUL, Aug. 24 (Yonhap) -- A Seoul court has ruled in favor of veterans in a damage suit they filed against North Korean leader Kim Jong-un for the injuries they suffered in a deadly inter-Korean naval skirmish near the sea border in 2002, officials said.

The conflict occurred near the South's front-line island of Yeonpyeong on June 29, 2002, as two North Korean patrol boats crossed the Northern Limit Line (NLL), the de facto maritime border, and launched a surprise attack on the South's Chamsuri-357 warship.

It left six South Korean sailors dead and 19 others injured. Around 30 North Koreans were thought to have been killed or wounded, according to the South's Navy.

Eight people, including those who fought in the skirmish and the widow of one of the killed servicemen, filed the suit against Kim and the North Korean regime in 2020, seeking compensation for the "physical and psychological damage inflicted due to North Korea's illegal acts."

On Tuesday, the Seoul Central District Court ruled the North Korean regime and Kim should pay 20 million won (US$14,886) to each of the complainants, along with 5 percent annual interest calculated from 2002.

The court said it has jurisdiction over the North's offense in question in keeping with the Supreme Court's previous rulings that North Korea, constitutionally defined as an anti-government organization, can be regarded as "a juridical person" under the country's Civil Procedure Act and can be judged.

The ruling is, however, only symbolic as the complaints are unlikely to get compensations from the North.

Two South Koreans previously taken as war prisoners by the North during the Korean War won damage suits against Kim in 2020. But the court ultimately dismissed their request to have the Foundation of Inter-Korea Cooperation based in Seoul pay the compensations.

In the absence of response from Kim's side in the latest ruling, the court replaced the necessary trial procedures of giving court documents to the defendants in person with the alternative online listing of them.