Four South Koreans who escaped from North Korea after a three-decade-long detainment have jointly filed a written accusation against the North demanding compensation for their forced stay.

The head of a North Korean defectors' family association, Choi Seong-yong, said the four would likely request that South Korean officials deliver their demand to Pyongyang, following Monday's official filing of the complaint with the National Human Rights Commission and the Truth and Reconciliation Committee.

The action follows recent demands for compensation pursued by those repatriated to the North after serving long prison terms in the South for refusing to renounce their communist ideology.

The four petitioners are seeking a total of four-hundred-million dollars, one-hundred-million for each individual from North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and the Korean Worker’s Party for forced labor and detention and violence inflicted by the North over 30 years.

Choi said he would call on Pyongyang to confirm the fate and pursue the early repatriation of four-hundred-84 South Korean abductees believed to be living in the North.