Court Tells North Korea to Pay US Family $330 Million for Missionary's Death

Carrie Dedrick | Updated: Apr 15, 2015

Court Tells North Korea to Pay US Family $330 Million for Missionary's Death

A court has ordered North Korea to pay an American missionary’s family $330 million after the missionary was kidnapped by spies and placed in a prison camp, where he later died. 

Kim Dong Shik, a Presbyterian pastor and naturalized US citizen, was working in China with refugees escaping North Korea when he was abducted 14 years ago. 

Court documents stated, “The North Korean security service learned of Reverend Kim’s activities on behalf of the defectors and refugees and decided to kidnap him and bring him to North Korea to thwart his work on behalf of those who have escaped.”

His family sued North Korea under the “terrorism exception” of the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, Christianity Today reports. 

An Israeli legal group represented the Kim family in the lawsuit. Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, director of Shurat Hadin told The Jerusalem Post, “This is an important human rights decision that will be utilized in all political abduction cases going forward.”

Publication date: April 15, 2015



Court Tells North Korea to Pay US Family $330 Million for Missionary's Death