South Korean lawmaker Ji Seong-ho on Friday proposed a bill that would give North Korean escapees in the South legal grounds to demand financial compensation for the human rights abuses they suffered in North Korea.

“Most of the North Korean defectors [that are] now protected as South Korean nationals … have defected from North Korea after having suffered physical or mental damage as a result of illegal human rights violations,” reads the text of the bill, made available to NK News.

Ji, a North Korean defector himself, says the bill was inspired by successful legal action against North Korea by