Korea nears end of traitors’ asset seizures

The public project to confiscate land assets from descendants of pro-Japanese traitors is nearing an end after years of legal battles, law officials said Sunday.

According to the Justice Ministry, 94 out of 96 lawsuits have concluded in seizing property from descendants of Koreans who received land assets in return for working in favor of the Japanese government during the colonial period. Two cases are pending in the top court, it said.

Since 2008, the government has launched a large-scale probe into the property that was rewarded to pro-Japanese traitors, and sought to reclaim it from the descendants, amid growing public pressure to set the history right.

The value of the overall land property seized from 168 pro-Japanese workers’ generations amounts to about 100 billion won ($91 million), the ministry said.

The legal battles were mainly divided into three cases ― state litigation launched by the government, administrative lawsuits sought by the concerned descendants who wished to take their property back after it was seized, and constitutional lawsuits over the legality of the asset confiscation project, officials said.

Of these, the government won 97 percent or 91 cases, the ministry said.

The state lost only three cases in which it was difficult to prove that the property owners were indeed pro-Japanese traitors or that the assets were clearly given to them in return of pro-Japanese activities, it added.

The government said the asset redemption project is expected to be wrapped up by this year as final rulings of the remaining two cases are to be delivered soon.

By Lee Hyun-jeong (rene@heraldcorp.com)