Pastor's family wins $330M case against North Korea

It took 15 years, but the family of a South Korean pastor abducted and presumed killed by North Korean agents finally has some measure of justice.

On April 9, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia awarded the family of Kim Dong-shik $330 million against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea for his wrongful death, torture, and kidnapping. Kim’s youngest son and younger brother were awarded $15 million each, as well as $300 million in punitive damages. Should the sum be procured, it’ll be a rare moment in which North Korea actually pays retributions for its crimes against humanity.

Shurat HaDin (Israel Law Center), an Israeli civil rights organization that provides legal aid to terrorism and torture victims, represented Kim’s family. Director Nitsana Darshan-Leitner called the court decision a “significant victory” that will light the way “like a torch” for other similar political abduction cases to follow, since most families are unable to provide the victim’s body to prove mistreatment or death.

Kim Dong-shik, a pastor with U.S. permanent resident status, disappeared in January 2000 after seven years of ministering to North Korean defectors in Northeast China. He was last spotted hailing a taxi in Yanji, China, when a group of unidentified men jumped in after him. The car sped away, and that was the last time he was ever seen in public again.

Family and friends immediately suspected North Korean involvement. People familiar with the modern-day “underground railroad,” a torturous escape route that stretches from China through Southeast Asia, know it is filled with risks for both defectors and workers. It’s also well known that North Korea dispatches intelligence agents to hunt down defectors and those who help or proselytize to them.

Days dragged into weeks and then years as the family prayed for Kim’s return. His son Han, who also lost his mother at a young age, was still in college when his father disappeared. He said he was “seized with apprehension and fears” over his father’s fate. His uncle, Kim Yong Seok, Kim’s younger brother by seven years, said his “shock turned to despair and depression” as he waited anxiously for news on Kim’s whereabouts.

Then in April 2005, South Korea arrested a North Korean agent who later confessed he participated in Kim’s kidnapping operation. The family also found several witnesses who reported second- and third-hand accounts of the pastor’s torture in a political camp, which forced them to accept their worst fear: Kim Dong-Shik is dead and most likely endured torture before he was killed. But proving that to a court was another matter.

On Oct. 10, 2008, Shurat HaDin filed suit against the North Korean government on behalf of the Kims, alleging brutal kidnapping, torture, and death by starvation in a political prison camp. North Korea never responded to the charges, and the district court dismissed the case due to insufficient evidence. The Kims appealed.

Providing “first-hand evidence” of a prisoner’s fate in North Korea is virtually impossible when Pyongyang refuses to cooperate and vigorously protects any hard details from escaping its torture chambers. But cases of imprisonment, torture, and execution in North Korea are now accepted knowledge, thanks to satellite images and testimonies collected from former political camp guards and prisoners who defected—facts the Kims gathered and presented as evidence to the court.

On Dec. 23, 2014, a U.S. federal appeals court acknowledged that in cases of forced disappearance, “direct evidence” will “almost always be unavailable,” so demanding them from plaintiffs would ensure that “few suits like this could ever proceed, and state sponsors of terrorism could effectively immunize themselves by killing their victims, intimidating witnesses, and refusing to appear in court.” The appeals court then reversed the district court’s dismissal and granted default judgment, which led to this month’s ruling.

Darshan-Leitner said she hopes this historic case will affect other similar ones worldwide, such as the infamous disappearances of civilians in Mexico: “I just really hope that we’re able to make repressive regimes like North Korea understand that there is a price for terrorism and torture … and whoever violates human rights has to pay the price.”

Ferreting out cash from North Korea’s coffers is the next step, but the impoverished, isolationist regime is unlikely to hand it over. Darshan-Leitner is confident she can collect at least $30 million for the Kims by tracking down other worldwide sources of North Korean money and property. Already she has found ways to seize North Korean assets frozen by the U.S. government, which reportedly amount to about $32 million.

The family was unavailable for comment, but Darshan-Leitner said they were “very satisfied, very pleased, very thankful. … Obviously, nothing will bring their father back to their arms, but there will be justice and some compensation for what they’ve endured for 15 years.”