Judge Yi Jong Gwang of the Suwon District Court has dismissed a claim by a family wanting the return of land received by an ancestor in return for collaboration with colonial Japan, and even people who are not descendants of collaborators probably felt some sort of awakening. The decision he issued says that anti-Korean activities such as land claim suits by descendants of collaborators are actions that go against constitutional order, but that since there is currently no legislation in place that embodies that aspect of the spirit of the constitution, the family's right to pursue its case should be suspended until such legislation can be established. That has to make the legislative branch of government uncomfortable since it has long avoided work on the needed legislation.
A bill that would allow foreclosure on assets obtained through collaboration with Japan is waiting for attention by the National Assembly's Legislation and Judiciary Committee. 169 members of the ruling and opposition parties sponsored it last February. They say it definitely be passed during the current session, but experience makes it hard to be sure that will be the case. When the late Assemblyman Je Jeong Gu proposed a similar bill in 1993 it never even got to committee. Another bill was proposed during the 16th National Assembly but it was discarded automatically when the 16th Assembly came to a close. The one now in committee is the third of its kind.
The National Assembly has been committing dereliction of duty, and meanwhile the descendants of men who were given land for collaborating with the Japanese have been persistently filing lawsuits demanding the right to that land. 35 suits have been filed, and eight among the sixteen that have seen their day in court have ended in victory for those families. The courts have essentially tolerated those "activities destructive to constitutional order" because of the legislative branch's "dereliction of duty." To add to the situation, last year alone the families reclaimed 110,000 pyeong of land through "claim your land" programs by local governments. The government is proving the truth to the old saying, "If you fight for independence your household is ruined for three generations, but if you betray your country your household prospers for three generations."
There are suggestions that the new bill might be unconstitutional, but the Justice Ministry and the new Supreme Court justices have issued authoritative interpretations saying that it would not be. In 1948 the Constitutional Assembly passed legislation requiring the prosecution of collaborators. It goes beyond the discretion permitted the legislative body to not pass that which should be legislated. This year the National Assembly must put an end to 57 years of dereliction of duty.
The Hankyoreh, 17 November 2005.
[Translations by Seoul Selection]
[Editorial] Time to Finally Pass Legislation on Collaborators' Land |
