A brief excerpt from the extended opinion in Does v. Democratic People’s Republic of N. Korea, handed down yesterday by Judge Timothy Kelly (D.D.C.):
In January 1968, North Korea pursued and seized the U.S.S. Pueblo in international waters, resulting in the death of a crew member and the taking of the remaining sailors as hostages. Over the following eleven months, North Korea subjected the survivors to beating, deprivation, interrogation, and torture to elicit false confessions. By year’s end, North Korea obtained the acknowledgment and apology it claimed the United States owed for allegedly violating North Korean territorial waters. And the hostages, having served their purpose, were freed.
This case represents one of several where some of the Pueblo’s crew, their families, and their estates brought suit against North Korea under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act and related state tort laws. North Korea did not appear, and Plaintiffs moved for default judgment. For the reasons that follow, the Court will grant their motion and award long-delayed restitution to these victims of state-sponsored terrorism.
As to the statute of limitations, the opinion explains this:
The FSIA’s statute of limitations imposes a cut-off date for lawsuits: the later of (1) 10 years after April 24, 1996, and 10 years after “the cause of action arose.” This timing provision is not jurisdictional, so it does not affect the Court’s authority to decide the case. And by failing to “default” and by not “raise [this] affirmative defense in answering a pleading,” North Korea has forfeited this time-based defense. Moreover, district courts lack “authority to raise sua sponte the FSIA terrorism exception’s statute of limitations when it has been forfeited by a defendant” such as North Korea “who is entirely absent from the proceedings.” Consequently, even if Plaintiffs’ complaint, filed in January 2023, might face difficulty overcoming the FSIA’s statute of limitations if the issue were raised, the issue has not been raised, and the Court will not—cannot—address it unprompted.
The awards, which total $404.55M, are listed in this order; it remains unclear whether there are any North Korean assets available to the plaintiffs to satisfy the awards.
