Gov't to seize land owned by collaborators during Japanese colonial era

South Korea is pushing to confiscate the assets of scores of descendants of those who amassed riches through cooperation with Japan, which colonized Korea between 1910 and 1945, the country's patriots and veterans affairs minister said Thursday.

The move is intended to follow up on a special law enacted in December to seize the assets of collaborators who helped the Japanese occupation of the Korean Peninsula. The government set up a presidential body last year to trace properties of alleged collaborators, boosted by a majority of public opinion calling for the assets to be returned to state coffers.

However, critics have claimed the law may violate the constitutional ban on retroactive application of laws.

"The government first plans to confiscate a total of some 9 million square meters of land owned by 41 descendants of pro-Japan collaborators," minister Park Yu-chul said. The land is valued officially at 70 billion won (US$74 million), but its market price is much higher.

The government will use the confiscated assets to compensate independence fighters, as well as their offspring, for their sacrifices under Japanese colonial rule, he said.

The ministry's drive is expected to face a strong backlash from the descendants of the alleged collaborators, including lawsuits.

Legal experts say it would be difficult to verify that those properties were acquired from pro-Japanese activities during the colonial era.

Some descendants of collaborators, including Lee Wan-yong, who helped Japan's colonization in his capacity as a government minister at that time, have retained the rights to their properties despite a series of lawsuits against them.

Park also said his ministry will formally ask China to preserve a site in its eastern city of Dalian where the remains of Ahn Joong-geun, a famous Korean independence fighter, are thought to be buried.

Ahn was executed by the Japanese authorities at a Chinese prison in 1910, one year after he was arrested for assassinating Ito Hirobumi, the first Japanese resident general in Korea, at a railway station in Harbin.

South Korea will continue efforts for a joint search with North Korea for Ahn's remains, the minister said.

Seoul, Feb. 15 (Yonhap News)