A Puerto Rican court has ordered North Korea to pay $378 million compensation to the families of those killed in the 1972 terror attack on Lod Airport (now known as Ben Gurion International Airport). The plaintiffs claimed that Pyongyang funded the training of the terrorists involved in the attack.

South Korean news agency Yonhap reported that Justice Francisco A. Besosa of the US District Court in Puerto Rico ruled that North Korea must transfer the money to the families of two of the victims who were both US citizens. The attack left 26 people dead, including 16 Puerto Rican pilgrims.

Decades Later Families of victims of 1972 airport attack sue N. Korea Ynet Shurat HaDin organization files lawsuit against Pyongyang on behalf of families of victims of terror attack at Ben Gurion International Airport 37 years ago which left 26 people, mostly Puerto Ricans, dead. Suit alleges North Korea financed, trained attack's perpetrators Families of victims of 1972 airport attack sue N. Korea

In May 1972 three terrorists from the Japanese Red Army, working with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, brought automatic weapons, ammunition and grenades with them in their check-in bags on a flight from Italy to Israel.

After collecting their luggage, they opened fire in every direction, hitting passengers, flight crew members and airport personnel. Seventy-four people were injured in the attack. Israeli Professor Aharon Katzir, a top scientist at the Weizmann Institute, was among the dead.

The terrorists also tried to bomb airplanes on the ground using hand grenades.

One of the terrorists was killed by security forces, another committed suicide, and the third, Kozo Akumoto was arrested and jailed in Israel. He was released in 1985 as part of the Jibril Agreement.