By Yi Whan-woo
The Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling Monday in favor of the bereaved families of over 400 alleged communists massacred by the government during the Korean War.
It said that the government must compensate 492 surviving spouses, parents, children, and siblings of Bodo League members killed between June and July 1950.
The league, formed in 1949, was comprised of alleged leftists and communists. The purpose of the organization was to educate and reform the Marxist-oriented thinking of its members.
The court rejected the appeal of the government against paying up to 80 million won ($70,390) to each family member of the victims.
The bereaved families filed a compensation suit in 2009 after the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, an independent government agency, stated that the country was responsible for the deaths of the victims who were all civilians.
The military and the police arrested and detained more than 400 group members in a hut in Ochang, North Chungcheong Province, when the war broke out on June 25, 1950. Ten of them were shot dead by the policemen on June 30 and rest of them lost their lives in July when a U.S. plane bombed the hut at the request of the South Korean Army.
The district court rejected the compensation demand of the bereaved families. It said that the case occurred decades ago and the period in which the government could make possible compensation extends to a maximum of five years after the incident.
The Seoul High Court, however, said that the country committed a war crime against innocent people, and ruled that the government should compensate for their deaths regardless of any circumstances.
It also recognized the family members’ claim that they could not take any action until the decision of the commission that was formed to restore the honor of scapegoats during the Korean War.