Pyongyang to sue Tokyo for wartime damages

North Korea is about to employ the services of a celebrated human rights attorney from the United States to file a suit against Japan claiming compensation for forced wartime labor and military sex slavery, it was recently confirmed.

Lawyers in Los Angeles said Barry Fisher, who won a damage suit against the war crimes of Nazi Germany, visited Pyongyang in October at the invitation of the North Korean government and conferred with Lee Song-Ho, vice chairman of the North Korean Association of Democratic Jurists.

Fisher was among the lawyers who brought a class action suit against the Japanese government to the federal court of Washington on behalf of 15 former comfort women from South Korea, China, the Philippines and Taiwan. He reportedly discussed with North Korean attorneys the possible participation of similar North Korean victims in such a class action suit.

The U.S. lawyer met with North Korean officials in Beijing several times and explored the possibility of instituting a damage suit for North Koreans on the basis of a law on torts against aliens that enables foreigners to file a damage suit with a U.S. court of justice.