Japanese court denies health benefits for SKorean atomic bomb survivor's family

Relatives of a South Korean man who survived the 1945 atomic bombing of Nagasaki will not receive health benefits he was denied after a court in southern Japan overturned an earlier ruling, a court official said Monday.

Choi Kye-Chul visited Japan in 1980 and received a certificate recognizing him as an atomic bomb victim, making him eligible for state health care allowances. Later that year, Choi returned to South Korea and the city of Nagasaki canceled the payments.

Choi launched a lawsuit in May 2004 for the benefits before his death that July, and his relatives have pursued the litigation.

The Nagasaki District Court in December 2005 ordered the city government to pay 827,900 yen (US$6,800; euro5,250) to Choi's relatives. The family had been seeking 9.6 million yen (US$79,000; euro60,970).

The Fukuoka High Court Monday overturned the earlier decision, court official Tatsuya Shiraki said.

About 260,000 people survived the Nagasaki and Hiroshima nuclear attacks, including 4,000 living abroad. Many were Koreans brought to Japan as soldiers or slave laborers during Tokyo's colonization of the Korean Peninsula from 1910-1945.

Survivors have developed various illnesses from being exposed to nuclear radiation, including cancer.

Officially recognized survivors living in Japan are eligible for monthly allowances of up to about 140,000 yen (US$1,150; euro890), free medical checkups and funeral costs. Overseas-based survivors had been excluded until the government changed the law in 2003.

Japan is the only country to suffer a nuclear attack when U.S. atomic bombs were dropped on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 during World War II.