She was one of the more than 90,000 Koreans and their relatives in Japan who went to North Korea decades ago seeking what the country promised: "paradise on earth." As North and South Korea make reconciliatory gestures and hundreds of war-separated relatives are reunited, Eiko Kawasaki
She was one of the more than 90,000 Koreans and their relatives in Japan who went to North Korea decades ago seeking what the country promised: «paradise on earth.»
As North and South Korea make reconciliatory gestures and hundreds of war-separated relatives are reunited, Eiko Kawasaki and others like her feel forgotten.
Kawasaki, 76, who was born in Japan and lived for 43 years in North Korea before defecting, has not seen her children, still in North Korea, for years.
She and four other defectors filed a lawsuit against North Korea’s government this week in Tokyo District Court, demanding 500 million yen, or about $5 million, in damages for human rights violations.
«Hardly anyone knows what happened,» Kawasaki told The Associated Press on Friday in an interview at a Tokyo coffee shop. «Everyone is stunned to hear it.»
Kawasaki is determined to keep telling her story to send the message Koreans living abroad must unite in a first step toward reunification.
