A Japanese court ordered the government to pay 16,000 dollars to a South Korean survivor of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima whose medical insurance coverage had been canceled.

Justic Ministry official, Chieko Watanabe said....though the government previously granted allowances to foreign victims of the atomic bomb who live in Japan, it was the first time a victim living overseas was awarded compensation by a court.

Koreans were brought as soldiers and laborers to Hiroshima, Nagasaki and other Japanese cities during Tokyo's colonial occupation of the Korean peninsula between 1910 and 1945.

The government was ordered to pay Kwak Kwi-hoon a 1,437 dollar lump sum and an additional monthly medical stipend of about 287 dollars starting retroactively in January 1999 and lasting until May 2003.

The total payment comes to about 16,665 dollars.

Kwak said... he was overjoyed to have gotten what he asked for.

Kwak was a Korean serving as a soldier in the Japanese military in Hiroshima when the city was bombed by the United States and he suffered a spinal injury. Watanabe said... the government had been paying for his treatment, but stopped coverage in 1998 after he moved to South Korea.