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Benefit for defoliant victims widened
By Park Si-soo
A law that cites death dates of soldiers as the sole factor in determining whether to compensate their families was ruled unconstitutional, the country’s top court said Sunday.
The 7-to-2 decision by the Constitutional Court immediately abolished the law that enabled families of soldiers who died before Dec. 21, 2007, of defoliant-related disease to receive survivor’s benefits from the government.
“Making a decision as to whether to give the benefit by date of death is unreasonable,” said President Lee Kang-kook of the court said in a ruling statement. “The law apparently infringes on the petitioners’ right to freedom and disturbs their pursuit of happiness.”
Three distraught family members filed a petition with the court in 2007, claiming the discriminative compensation by death date had infringed upon their right to freedom and other constitutional rights.
The government enacted the law in 2007 to support the education and employment of family members of soldiers who died due to exposure to toxic defoliant during the Vietnam War and defense operations against North Korea in the Demilitarized Zone between 1967 and 1970.