hankyoreh

Seo Min-jung, director for Asian and Pacific affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, delivers a briefing on April 13 regarding the decision of 10 out of 15 plaintiffs in the 2018 Supreme Court ruling on compensation for Japan’s forced labor to receive a pay-out from the government-run Foundation for Victims of Forced Mobilization by Imperial Japan. (Yonhap)

Families of 10 Korean victims of forced labor during the Japanese occupation have agreed to receive the compensation they won via the 2018 Supreme Court ruling by the government’s third-party payment plan by Friday.

The government has asked that the victims refusing the third-party compensation on the principle that they desire direct compensation from the complicit Japanese companies, not the Korean government, “hear out” the government’s explanation.

Seo Min-jung, director for Asian and Pacific affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told reporters at the ministry building on Wednesday that the Foundation for Victims of Forced Mobilization by Imperial Japan “will pay the judgment sum and delayed interest to the families of 10 victims of the Supreme Court’s final judgment who expressed willingness to accept the government’s solution.”

The foundation has already paid two of these victims, and will finalize the payment of the remaining eight victims after a board meeting on Thursday. The sums are reportedly between 200 million and 290 million won per person (US$154,000-$223,400).

There are a total of 15 victims who were awarded compensation by the Supreme Court in 2018. Three surviving victims of forced mobilization, Yang Geum-deok,94, Kim Seong-ju, 95, and Lee Chun-sik, 99, have refused to accept money paid through the government’s solution, along with the surviving families of two other victims.

A Foreign Ministry official stated, “It is said that justice delayed is justice denied. The government’s solution may not look perfect to the victims or to the general public, but given various practical constraints, we implore the remaining victims and families to meet with the government.”

The foundation’s payment of the judgment sum will nullify the claims the 10 victims had against the Japanese companies. Lim Jae-sung, an attorney representing the victims, stated in a phone call with the Hankyoreh, “The claims are exterminated when a third party performs a payment. It’s a simple concept written out in the Civil Code.”

A Foreign Ministry official was wary of how this was worded, especially the implication that the government was behind the extinction of the claims. “The claims have not been exterminated. The victim’s legal rights have been satisfied and fulfilled.”

“The ministry is wary of saying that the claims have been canceled because it will reflect poorly on them,” Lim said.

The ministry has been unable to come up with something to satisfy the five victims who have rejected the government’s solution.

“We have contacted their families, including the three surviving victims, directly and indirectly, but to no end,” the ministry official said. “They are refusing to meet, but the government will continue to ask to talk in a heartfelt manner.”

The plan is to try to convince them to accept the solution.

However, Lee Guk-eon, chairperson of the Citizens Association on Imperial Japan’s Labor Mobilization, criticized the ministry’s stance, saying, “They seem to be trying to make people think, ‘Oh, everyone’s accepted the payment. You’re the only ones left.’ The plaintiffs who refused to accept the money are elderly, so they are trying to shake them down.”

In response to a question about whether the ministry would seek a “deposit” — the process of canceling the claims of victims who are refusing to receive compensation from the foundation — the ministry official stated, “For now, putting in the effort and explaining is key.”

A “deposit” is a way to leave the money in the hands of the court and let the victims collect it.

The ministry has said it has received the legal interpretation that if a victim refuses until the very end to receive the judgment through the government’s policy, their payment can be repaid through a court deposit.

Lim said that the ministry has always maintained that “legally, we know that if a victim does not receive the judgment until the end, it can be deposited,” so he expects the process to proceed.

By Jang Ye-ji, staff reporter; Shin Hyeong-cheol, staff reporter

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