TOKYO (AP) — More than 90,000 Koreans in Japan and their families went to North Korea decades ago seeking what the country promised: "paradise on earth."

As North and South Korea make reconciliatory gestures and hundreds of war-separated relatives are reunited, they feel forgotten.

Eiko Kawasaki was born in Japan and lived 43 years in North Korea before defecting. She has not seen her children, still in North Korea, for years.

She and four other defectors filed a lawsuit against North Korea's government this week in Tokyo District Court, demanding 500 million yen, or about $5 million, in damages for human rights violations.

Kawasaki told The Associated Press on Friday she is determined to keep telling her story to send the message Koreans living abroad must unite in a first step toward reunification.