Seoul court dismisses claim to land in North Korea

SEOUL, March 22 (Yonhap) -- The Supreme Court said Tuesday that a South Korean national is not eligible to ask the government to confirm his or her ownership of land in the North, dismissing a lower court's decision.
Members of a family, surnamed Yoon, lodged a lawsuit before the court, claiming that one of their ancestors who died in 1923 was listed as the owner of an estate in a document produced between 1913-22 by the Japanese government, which colonized the Korean Peninsula from 1910-45.
The Yoon family asked the Seoul court to confirm that the area in the northern part of Gyeonggi Province, which is now North Korean territory, belongs to their grandfather.
The top court said that it is impossible to verify whether Yoon was the owner of the estate because all North Korean records in the official land-ownership register were discarded in 1991.
"The land is in North Korea, where the government cannot verify whether their document is correct with regard to size or coordinates," said the court, dismissing a lower court's ruling.
A lower court previously recognized that Yoon's family owned the land, based on the Japanese document.