Inter-Korean legal disputes

Inter-Korean legal disputes (남북간 법적분쟁/南北間 法的紛爭) are on the increase as the Inter-Korean exchange and cooperation is into high gear. Since the Korean War, there occurred a lot of incidents and disputes between the North and the South, for instance, among others:
 * Attempted terrorist attack against the Blue House in January 1968
 * Assassination of First Lady in August 1975
 * Bombing at Aung San Cemetry during President Chun's state visit to Myanmar in October 1983
 * Explosive downing of Korean Air and killing 115 passengers and crew flying over the Indian Ocean in November 1987
 * Explosive sinking of Naval Ship Cheon-An off Baekryong Island in March 2010

However, in this article, legal disputes in the context of Inter-Korean exchange and cooperation will be examined.

Traffic accident
At Mt. Geumgang Tourism Zone, three North Korean soldiers were run by a car driven by South Korean employee. One soldier was killed and two were seriously injured.

This kind of torts could be treated in the manner as if it took place in South Korea. Also the case was entitled to be governed by the South Korean law and subject to the jurisdiction of South Korean court. So the lost revenues of the North Korean victims might be calculated on the basis of earning by North Korean workers at the Gaeseong Industrial Complex (GIC).

Construction contract
A contractor assigned the claims to Plaintiff on the construction works at the GIC site in which Defendant had participated as a privileged licensee qualified by the North Korean authorities. As Defendant was late to pay the proceeds, Plaintiff filed a lawsuit with the South Korean court.

The court held that, even though the construction works had been performed at the GIC subject to the Construction Framework Rule established by the GIC Management Committee, the actual construction works were conducted by Korean contractors, and Defendant had no reason under the sub-contract agreement to deny the payment to Plaintiff, a legitimate assignee of the claims.

The legal issue was what the governing law is when it was not explicitly designated in the agreement. Considering the specific relations between the North and the South, the court had better apply the Korean Private International Act and concluded the GIC legislation would be the most related law in this case. However, the court held Defendant had no reason to deny such payment in view of the nature of a sub-contract agreement.

Withdrawal of equipment
Plaintiff and Defendant agreed to co-invest in a factory to produce kitchenware at the GIC. Defendant installed machinery and equipment as investment in kind under the partnership agreement. But the business went contrary to their expectations, and accordingly they decided to quit the partnership. As Defendant hesitated to withdraw the machinery and equipment from the factory, Plaintiff filed the motion with the South Korean court to cease the occupation of the factory site.

The court held that, in this preservation case prior to the legitimate enforcement, there could be no way to secure the enforcement of the court's temporary disposition and no need to preserve such disposition in the course of legal disputes between the parties. So the court denied the motion for injunction.

North Korean copyright
Novelist A who had published a novel "Tumen River" (두만강) in North Korea was survived by Plaintiffs in South Korea. In the meantime, Defendant Publisher collected the writings of A from the libraries in Japan and published A's novel in South Korea. Plaintiffs applied for provisional disposition not to violate the copyright of the departed A, which was succeeded by Plaintiffs. Defendant argued that the copyright belonged to the Writers Federation in North Korea.

The court held that the Korean Copyright Act is applicable in North Korea regardless of reprocity subject to Article 3 of the Constitution which provides the territory of the Republic of Korea is the Korean Peninsula and adjacent islands, and accordingly the copyright products in North Korea are protected by the Korean Copyright Act.