A Seoul court ruled Friday that the South Korean government should compensate five lepers for forced vasectomies and abortions performed decades ago, the latest in a series of legal victories for leprosy patients.
  

The Seoul Central District Court ordered the government to pay 40 million won ($33,000) each to the plaintiffs.
  

The court also ruled in favor of nearly 600 others in four separate cases filed by lepers since October 2011, ordering that they be compensated.
  

Cho Young-seon, a lawyer who represents the plaintiffs, said the government should stop torturing the victims and pay compensation across-the-board as he criticized the government for appealing previous rulings.
  

South Korea began to carry out forced abortions and vasectomies on leprosy patients in 1937 during Japan's occupation of the Korean Peninsula.
  

The practice is believed to have lasted until 1990, though it was briefly halted for a few years following Korea's independence from Japan in 1945. Japan ruled the Korean Peninsula as a colony from 1910 to 1945. (Yonhap)