Lee Rae-jin, the older brother of the South Korean official killed by North Korean troops at see in September 2020, speaks to The Korea Herald during an interview. (The Korea Herald)

The families of South Korean and Japanese victims of North Korea’s atrocities will meet in Japan next month and plan to work together to seek justice and reparations.

The family of Lee Dae-jun, the South Korean government official slain by North Korean soldiers in 2020, will get together for the first time on April 8 with a support group for families of the Japanese abducted by North Korea in Tokyo, according to the Lee family’s lawyer Kim Ki-yun.

Kim said in a phone call with The Korea Herald that Lee Rae-jin, Lee Dae-jun's older brother, will be meeting with Kazuhiro Araki, the head of the support group for the abductees’ families during their one-day trip. Shinkun Haku, a former member of the Japanese House of Councilors, helped arrange the meeting.

“So far the families and the victims of each country more or less had to respond on their own. There has to be a way for them to work jointly and combine efforts,” he said.

Following the meeting next month, Kim said that the families will press their respective governments to come up with measures to allow them to work together in terms of legal action and other efforts.

The bringing together of the families of the two countries follows the meeting between Lee’s older brother and the parents of Otto Warmbier, the US student who died in 2017 after 17 months of brutal captivity by North Korea, in September last year.