N. Korea Leader's Aunt Sues Defectors in South
The U.S.-based aunt of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un filed a defamation suit in South Korea on Wednesday against three defectors from her reclusive homeland.
Ko Yong-Suk, who looked after Kim for years when he was at school in Switzerland, said the three defectors, who escaped the North and settled in South Korea in the 1990s, were guilty of repeatedly "spreading false information" about her and her family.
Ko took asylum in the United States in 1998 with her husband, and the suit was filed on her behalf by her Seoul-based lawyer, Kang Yong-Seok.
The younger sister of Kim's mother, who died in France in 2004, Ko is seeking a total of 60 million won ($51,900) for remarks the defectors made on South Korean TV talk shows between 2013 and 2014.
Kang said the defamation allegations covered claims that Ko once managed a secret fund for Kim's late father, Kim Jong-Il, that her father collaborated during Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule over the Korean peninsula and that she had plastic surgery after defecting to the U.S.
"The defectors made groundless remarks without really knowing about her life," the lawyer told AFP.
Kang added it was unclear if Ko would attend any future court hearing.
"I'm not 100 percent sure, but her husband indicated she could come," he said.
Ko's husband visited Seoul on Monday to sign a power of attorney and returned to the United States the day after.
The three defectors named in the suit include a former North Korean agent, the son-in-law of a former North Korean prime minister and an ex-diplomat.
Source: Agence France Presse
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