(MENAFN- The Journal Of Turkish Weekly) South Korea's government was ordered to compensate 135 abused leprosy victims Wednesday, with a Seoul judge describing their treatment up until the end of the twentieth century as "extremely anti-humanitarian."
Following two similar rulings since April of last year, the plaintiffs are each set to receive up to 40 million won ($36,500).
Seoul Central District Court Judge Kim Jong-won described the "sense of inferiority and despair" that the government instilled in the victims, according to local news agency Yonhap.
The modern practice of castrating lepers on the Korean Peninsula dates back to Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule.
But even following the division of the Koreas after being freed from Tokyo's control at the end of World War II, South Korea reinstated forced castrations in 1948.
Sorok Island off the country's southern coast became notorious among the country's leper colonies for a catalog of abuses. Men were sterilized when they got married and mandatory abortions were implemented - long after South Korea officially abandoned its anti-leprosy segregation policy in the mid-1960s.
The tide truly turned in 2007, when parliamentary legislation prompted an investigation into claims of human rights abuses and the subsequent offer of subsidies to victims.
With another lawsuit ongoing, attorney Park Yeong-rip was quoted by Yonhap as urging the government not to appeal - as it has done previously.
"The ruling is a step forward to creating a society that protects lepers who have been ostracized," Park said.
Thousands of current and former leprosy patients are still based at dozens of residential facilities across South Korea today.
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