By Bae Ji-sook
Staff Reporter
An accord between the Korean and the Japanese governments nullifying claims by Koreans who were exploited under the Japanese colonial rule (1910-1945) will be brought before the Constitutional Court.
Lawyers for Lee Yun-jae, whose father died while working for a Japanese company during the colonial regime, filed a petition to the Constitutional Court Friday claiming the pactsigned in 1965 is an infringement on an individual's property rights. He said the agreement has barred numerous descendants of the colonial victims from claiming legitimate compensation from both administrations.
In 1965, the Japanese government paid $500 million, including $200 million in economic aid, compensation for its occupation. The Korean counterpart in return freed the Japanese administration from further financial liabilities for its exploitation during the colonization. The money was used to set public industrial infrastructure without consulting or distributing it to the victims of the regime.
In 2005, as the number of cases surged, the government passed a special law to compensate the victims at a rate of 2,000 won per unpaid yen.
Lee alleged that the amount does not reflect inflation. "The price for a bar of gold has jumped 140,000 times since the occupational era," Lee's lawyer said. Lee was paid 11.6 million won for his father's unpaid 5,828 yen but the actual amount would be much higher if properly calculated, he said.
Recently, a local court turned down Lee's request, saying the exchange rate was fixed according to the law and that Lee would have to fight for a revision.
If the Constitutional Court rules against the pact, it is expected to sweep both governments. The Japanese government also holds $306 million in deposits from its colonial corporations as compensation funds. The amount is estimated to be astronomical because it has been in the bank for more than half a century.