Japan court holds North Korea liable for fake 'paradise on Earth' scheme

More than 90,000 ethnic Koreans and their Japanese spouses are said to have migrated to North Korea from 1959 to 1984. -- PHOTO: REUTERS

TOKYO  (AFP): A Tokyo court ordered Pyongyang on Monday to pay more than $500,000 in compensation to four people lured to North Korea by a fantastical propaganda scheme promising a "paradise on Earth".

More than 90,000 ethnic Koreans and their Japanese spouses are said to have migrated to North Korea between 1959 and 1984, drawn by the claims that North Korea was a paradise under a now-defunct repatriation initiative critics say amounted to state kidnapping.