A Tokyo court has asked Pyongyang to pay 88 million Japanese yen ($570,000; £416,000) to four people who were lured to North Korea decades ago by a propaganda scheme.

The plaintiffs said the North was marketed to them as “paradise on Earth”, but they instead found themselves subject to harsh conditions, including forced labour. They later escaped.

Monday’s ruling is largely symbolic with no real way to enforce it: North Korea has for years ignored the lawsuit, and its leader Kim Jong Un has not responded to Japanese court summons.

But the ruling, which comes after a years-long legal battle in Japanese courts, has been hailed by the plaintiffs’ lawyer as “historic”.

This was the first time “a Japanese court exercised its sovereignty against North Korea to recognise its malpractice”, said Atsushi Shiraki, a lawyer representing the plaintiffs, AFP reported.

More than 90,000 Zainichi Koreans – ethnic Koreans who live in Japan – moved to North Korea between 1959 and 1984, under a resettlement scheme which promised an idyllic life of free healthcare, education and jobs.

But instead survivors say they found themselves forced to work on farms and factories, subject to restrictions and could not leave.

One of the plaintiffs, Eiko Kawasaki, went to North Korea in 1960, when she was 17. She escaped in 2003 and is now 83 years old.

She was among a group of five plaintiffs who filed a lawsuit in 2018 demanding compensation. Two of the original plaintiffs have since died, but one of them continued to be represented in the lawsuit by their family.

In 2022, a Tokyo district court rejected their compensation claims, saying that it fell outside Japanese jurisdiction and the statute of limitations had expired.

But in 2023, the Tokyo High Court ruled that the case was in fact under Japanese jurisdiction and found that North Korea had violated the plaintiffs’ rights.

“It’s not an overstatement to say most of their lives were ruined by North Korea,” judge Taiichi Kamino said at a ruling at the Tokyo District Court on Monday, according to an Associated Press report.

Kenji Fukuda, another lawyer for the plaintiffs acknowledged the significance of the ruling but said it would be a “challenge” actually getting any money from North Korea.

Judges at the International Criminal Court (ICC) have ruled that former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte is fit to attend pre-trial proceedings for alleged crimes against humanity.

The ICC also will hold a hearing on 23 February to decide whether the prosecution’s case against Duterte is strong enough to proceed to a trial.

Duterte’s lawyers earlier argued that the 80-year-old was unfit to participate in the ICC proceedings citing “cognitive impairment”. He has been detained at the Hague since March 2025.

He is accused of being responsible for dozens of murders under his so-called war on drugs, during which thousands of small-time drug dealers, users and others were killed without trial.

Duterte was president of the Philippines from 2016 to 2022. He justified his war on drugs by saying peace and order would pave the way for economic development.

Citing opinions from a panel of medical experts, ICC judges said they were “satisfied” that Duterte is “able effectively to exercise his procedural rights and is therefore fit to take part in the pre-trial proceedings”.

ICC judges also said in their decision on Monday that the mental capacities needed to “meaningfully exercise one’s procedural and fair trial rights” did not have to be “at their notionally highest level”.

“This ruling tells victims that in the reckoning of Duterte at the ICC, their voices will not be sidelined by technical evasions,” said Congresswoman Leila de Lima, one of Duterte’s fiercest critics who was jailed during his presidency on drug charges that were later found to be false.

Duterte was arrested at Manila airport in March 2025 as his family’s alliance with his successor, President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr crumbled.

His arrest has divided Filipinos. While his deadly drugs crackdown has drawn sharp criticism from civil society, his populist message resonates with those who feel sidelined by Manila’s political elite.

In May last year, Duterte was elected mayor of Davao city despite being in prison.

His daughter, Vice-President Sara Duterte, is also widely expected to run for president in the 2028 elections, where Marcos is ineligible to seek a second term.