A South Korean family has agreed to pay part of their inheritance to their North Korean relatives following more than two years of court battle in the first such case in the nation.

The Seoul Central District Court said Wednesday that South and North Korean members of a family have agreed to a court-arranged mediation that orders five South Korean siblings to transfer parts of a ten-billion won inheritance to their four step siblings in North Korea. The children were of the same father, who died in South Korea.

The inheritance to be paid to the North Korean family members is expected to be real estate and cash worth billions of won, even though no exact amount was announced. Under current South Korean law, these assets can be transferred to the North by a legal representative.

The father operated a hospital in North Korea and had five children before coming to the South with his eldest daughter when the Korean War broke out. He later remarried and had four more children before his death in 1987.

The eldest daughter, the legal representative for her North Korean sisters and brothers, filed a lawsuit against their South Korean siblings and their mother in 2009, saying that the North Korean family members deserved some of the inheritance.