US Lawsuits Against North Korea Go Beyond Prisoner Cases

For years, the only people who sued North Korea in American courts were those who had been held prisoner there, or families of people North Korea had killed. But that is changing fast. Now, families of soldiers killed in Ukraine, victims of terrorist attacks in the Middle East, and even a major cryptocurrency company have all taken North Korea to court in the United States. These new cases show that US courts are being used in new ways to hold North Korea responsible for harm caused far beyond its own borders.

One of the newest cases involves a Ukrainian soldier named Andrii Rachok. He was killed in February 2024 during a Russian military attack while fighting for Ukraine. On January 2, 2026, four members of his family — all US citizens — filed a lawsuit in federal court in Washington, D.C., against North Korea, Russia, and Iran. They are asking for money to make up for their loss, and they claim that North Korean mortars, which are a type of weapon, were used in the attack that killed him. Public records suggest North Korea gave Russia more than 12 million artillery rounds, including mortar rounds used in such attacks.

Similar lawsuits have been filed over attacks in the Middle East. In one major case, a federal court in Virginia ordered North Korea and Iran to pay about $487 million in damages. The lawsuit was brought by 47 Americans — victims and their family members — who were affected by seven terrorist attacks in Iraq, Syria, Kenya, and Israel. The court agreed with the plaintiffs that North Korea had provided weapons, military training, and help building tunnels to groups like Hamas and Hezbollah, and it found a legal link between that support and the harm the victims suffered.

Bruce Bechtol, a professor at Angelo State University who studied North Korea's military activities in the Middle East, explained the seriousness of these actions. He told VOA that North Korea didn't just sell weapons to Iran — it did so while knowing those weapons could end up with terrorist groups. That kind of knowing involvement made North Korea legally responsible, according to the court. His comments helped show why the judge sided with the victims.

Another group of victims from the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel also filed court papers against North Korea, Iran, and Syria. They claim North Korea gave Hamas weapons, military training, and technology to build more weapons. They also say North Korea helped construct the underground tunnels in Gaza that Hamas used during the attack. Their attorney said the victims deserved a chance to tell their stories in court and to show the damage caused by terrorists and the countries that support them.

The lawsuits have also expanded to include businesses. In June 2025, a cryptocurrency exchange called Bybit filed a civil lawsuit in federal court in Washington, D.C., saying that hackers stole about $1.5 billion in cryptocurrency from the company in February 2025. The lawsuit named the North Korean government, a spy agency called the Reconnaissance General Bureau, and a hacking group known as the Lazarus Group. After the lawsuit was filed, the court took steps to stop the stolen money from being moved or hidden.

US courts have now ordered North Korea to pay nearly $5 billion in damages across many cases, according to a review by VOA, with more than $1.2 billion awarded in just the past year. Many of these lawsuits use a law called the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, or FSIA, which usually protects foreign governments from being sued in US courts. However, there is an exception for countries labeled as state sponsors of terrorism. North Korea was removed from that list in 2008 but was put back on it in 2017, which allowed these lawsuits to go forward.

Winning a lawsuit does not always mean getting the money, though. North Korea does not pay these court judgments on its own, so winners must find money or property connected to North Korea and ask a court to hand it over. One of the most well-known examples involves Otto Warmbier, an American college student who was arrested in North Korea and died after being returned to the US in 2016. His parents won a judgment of over $500 million against North Korea in 2018 and have spent years trying to collect it.

The Warmbier family has also gone after money tied to North Korea's nuclear weapons program. In June 2025, a US court ordered $17 million in frozen assets to be paid to Warmbier's parents, money linked to a nuclear weapons network run by Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, also known as A.Q. Khan. The family argued that the money had ultimately gone to North Korea, and the court agreed. The judge found that Khan's network had acted as an agent of North Korea when it transferred the funds.