In August, five North Korean defectors residing in Japan filed a lawsuit in Tokyo District Court charging Pyongyang with human rights abuses. The plaintiffs were described in the Mainichi Shimbun as "second-generation ethnic Koreans" who grew up in Japan but moved to North Korea during the mobilization of Koreans between 1959 and 1984, which was supported by the governments of both North Korea and Japan. During this period, about 93,000 people were "repatriated" to a country very few really knew and none had ever lived in. They bought the propaganda sold by Pyongyang and its political arm in Japan, the General Association of Korean Residents of Japan, or Chongryon, which presented North Korea as "a paradise on Earth." The plaintiffs described widespread starvation and brutal political persecution after they arrived. Eventually, they escaped to South Korea and made their way back to Japan.