By Kim Tae-jong
A North Korean man is preparing for a lawsuit to inherit part of the assets left behind by his father who died in the South.
The man in his 50s plans to file a lawsuit against his father’s family in South Korea through the help of an agent in China and a lawyer in South Korea, Yonhap News Agency said Sunday, quoting unnamed government and court officials. The man’s late father reportedly left behind millions of dollars.
The case came just a few weeks after a local court recognized a bereaved family in North Korea’s partial rights to inherit their father’s assets in South Korea. It was the first time that North Koreans have won partial ownership of assets left by a relative in the South.
The officials predicted that more North Koreans will file similar inheritance suits in South Korea, raising the possibility that North Korean authorities may be assisting the plaintiffs.
“We can’t rule out the possibility that the North Koreans seeking inheritance from their family members in the South are being helped by someone who’s familiar with South Korean law. North Korean authorities could be behind them,” an unnamed official told Yonhap.
Previously, Yoon Byeong-jeon and his three siblings in the North, children of Yoon Woo-geun who died in South Korea in 1989, demanded 2.5 billion won and part of the real estate left by their late father, valued at 10 billion won ($6 million) in 2008.
Three years of legal disputes ended on July 12 when the court mediated a compromise splitting the fortune between family members in the two Koreas.
Expecting similar suits to follow, the government is currently seeking ways to restrict North Koreans from filing inheritance lawsuits out of fear that massive amounts of capital may flow into the impoverished North.
According to the bill proposed by the Ministry of Justice in February, North Koreans can be given the ownership of assets in the South but they need to have an approval from the unification minister for the transfer of their inherited assets out of South Korea.
Yonhap said the North Korean government may be helping its citizens in recent inheritance lawsuits involving large fortunes, citing a government official.
“Judging from the recent cases, it seems like North Koreans are filing lawsuits with detailed knowledge of their parents’ inheritance. Wouldn’t that be difficult without the help of the (North Korean) government?” the official was quoted as saying
Millions of family members were separated during the 1950-53 Korean War that ended in a truce, not a peace treaty, leaving the Korean Peninsula still technically at war.