hankyoreh

It was confirmed on April 14 that the government rejected a civic organization’s application for registration as a non-profit organization over a month ago, without offering any specific reasons for its decision. The organization in question, the Korean Committee for Joint Action on Yasukuni Shrine, works to resolve issues surrounding Japan’s Yasukuni Shrine, which are often at the heart of conflicts between Korea and Japan over the reconciliation of history between the two nations.

Civic organizations, including the Yasukuni committee, are against the government’s rejection of the application, saying that

rejecting the registration of the committee is in line with

government policy of merging various organizations that also work to resolve conflicts over history. The Lee Myung-bak administration’s position on history seems to be returning to the past, they say.

According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Trade, the ministry returned the committee’s application on March 6, saying that the ministry is not the proper organization with which to register the committee, and that it returned the committee’s application based on a number of factors, including relations between Seoul and Tokyo, according to a ministry official.

The Korean Committee for Joint Action on Yasukuni Shrine is an international, civil, cooperative body that was founded by people from South Korea, Japan and Taiwan in August 2006. They hope to persuade the shrine to allow them to remove the bodies of approximately 21,000 Korean and 28,000 Taiwanese people currently enshrined at Yasukuni.

Under the law that supports non-profit civic organizations, however, the government does not have the power to register a non-profit organization. Instead, the law stipulates that the government can only register a non-profit organization only when the organization itself submits an application. Clause 3 of the law says: “The nation and local governments must respect the activities of non-profit organizations and make a major effort to participate in activities for public interest.”

In fact, 75 non-profit civic groups, which are similar to the Korean Committee for Joint Action on Yasukuni Shrine in terms of their activities, are registered and supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Those organizations include the Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan and the Association of Koreans who Survived Forced Labor by Japan.

Seo Woo-yeong, the managing director of the Korean Committee for Joint Action on Yasukuni Shrine, said, “At first, the Foreign Ministry had refused to receive the application, saying ‘It’s certain to be sent back.’ That would be evidence of a turn-around in the Lee Myung-bak’s administration’s view of history,” Seo said.

Some critics say the South Korean ministry was trying to accommodate Japan ahead of President Lee’s upcoming visit to that country on April 20.

Yasukuni Shrine, which is home to the memorial tablets of 14 Class A war criminals, is a key point of contention between Korea and Japan because it is emblematic of how differently the two countries view colonial rule and responsibility for the war. Back when Lee’s administration was still his presidential transition team, it announced it would force the merger of the committees that have no time limits, the May 18th Democracy Movement and April 3 Jeju Incident committees, and that it would do away with the Truth Commission on Forced Mobilization Under Japanese Imperialism, which does have a time limit, but not give it any more time.

A high-ranking member of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission said that while scrapping the committees was stopped due to opposition from the former United New Democratic Party, “if the initial plan gets forced through, these committees are a going to be as good as dissolved and inquiries into issues of the recent past will cease.”

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]