According to MBC News, Koreans who were forced into labor by the Japanese during WW2 plans to sue POSCO for compensation.
The reason?
Former Pres. Park Chung-hee used the $800 million (which was actually “compensation” but was termed loans for “economic cooperation”) that he received from the Japanese as part of the 1965 agreement establishing diplomatic relations to set up the Pohang Steel Works. Also, the agreement pretty much excused Japan from responsibility for further compensating individuals who were drafted into service for Japan.
So, the former forced laborers are now suing POSCO since to them it received the money that was supposed to go to them in the first place.
26 Comments
This actually makes sense to me. I’m of a legalistic mindset and legally, per the normalization agreement, Japan doesn’t owe South Korea or South Koreans any fiscal compensation for the war and/or colonization. However, my views on the moral responsibilities, apologies, etc. are a different matter.
They’re suing the wrong party. The correct party to sue is the Republic of Korea, which stole their money and invested it in POSCO — not POSCO itself. POSCO used to be a state-owned corporation but it has since been privatized. That means the current (and now largely foreign) shareholders of POSCO are “takers without notice” of the potentially impaired property, but the state has pocketed the money from that sale of shares in the privatization. The proceeds of the theft of compensation money have gone back into the coffers of the Republic of Korea.
Plus, there is of course the matter of statute of limitations. Except if a special law is passed abolishing the statute of limitations (or maybe there is one for these types of claims, as it seems just speaking the word “Japan” gets rule of law tossed aside these days) the litigation should be barred — this theft of assets took place over 40 years ago.
How much worse off would this country be if this money had gone to the individuals instead of Posco?
True, but I think their lawyer talked them out of it. I mean POSCO is an easier target compared to the ROK government.
Suing the ROK! Fat chance! To have a judge make a decision that is bad for the ROK government, can only be done if judges are independent and there is a seperation of powers.
Sorry guys, but you got screwed by Park Chung Hee, you ain’t gettin squat!
I don’t know how many people we are talking about who are doing the suing but it’s pretty funny since without Prez Park’s creation of POSCO, the “Han River Miracle” would likely never have happened. These people, arguably, owe their homes, cars, and lifestyles to the (admittedly questionable) decision to take the money and put it back into the society.
And I have to agree with Mr. Carr, they are suing the wrong people. It makes no sense to sue the company, they are a private company now. The complaintants would have to sue the government of Korea for compensation since the ‘wrongdoing’ was done by edict of Dictator Park.
Excellent points, Brendon.
Does South Korea have a statue of limitations? (not that it really matters since, as you pointed out, the Korean government should be the one held responsible).
#6…
Not that the billions of dollars that South Korea received in aid from the US and other countries had anything to do with the Miracle of the Han River, right?
The IMF crisis was not long ago. You don’t hear much about it from the locals. Evil USA!
Given the warped logic of settling affairs — statutes of limitations, notwithstanding, why not sue the family of Park, Chung-Hee? Okay, they have much smaller pockets than the ROK Government, but it was Pres. Park who personally made and authorized the allocation of funds collected from the Japanese government — and, while we’re at it, he was a Japanese collaborator to boot.
Of course, I’m not serious. Koreans never fail to amaze me how far they are willing to go to exercise their “han.”
Even though POSCO is a Korean company they actually try to run the company fairly clean as possible within the reality known as South Korea. They likely did not contribute enough to labor groups, the Blue House, and the URI party and now will start feeling the tip of things to come their way.
Wow – funny how chickens start coming home to roost. Posted about this a while back, when this whole comfort women issue came back up in the States, and I’m glad to see someone starting to realize that it wasn’t just the Japanese military who had been fucking the Korean people, but rather the Korean government itself which had taken its own turn at the action. But comfort women (or forced laborers) suing their own government doesn’t look good in the press, nor follow the lines of ideology set down by the skewed history of modern Korea that most people learn in school, read about in popular books, and see reflected in the media again and again.
I think certain conservative parts of the Japanese establishment are totally off their rockers for trying to assert that certain shit didn’t happen during their occupation or subjugation of much of Asia, or that the government/military wasn’t responsible for the undeniable shit that did – but I do agree with the sentiment that, for all legal intents and purposes, the Japanese government paid the piper, while the Korean government took that money and built a country (while some people lined their pockets).
In the end, the money given in the names of those very people who are suing POSCO now, or the comfort women who are asking for additional redress by the Japanese government, are barking AT the wrong tree. In terms of the morality of the issue, recent statements coming out of Japan are fucked up; in terms of the legality of the issue, however, I think people need to look deeper. If they do, as with all things during this period of exchanging morality for the capital to rapidly develop, they’ll see that one of the demons that people are trying to slay lives closer to home than they’d like to think.
I think their lawyer is just trying to simplify things for the Pohang I&S laborers. The Korean government agreed to a payment of $364mil USD in 1965, and told Japan that this amount would settle all liabilities toward all forced laborers.
A lot of Koreans, including comfort women and non-laborer war victims, and their families, have been trying to get a piece of that money ever since. From what I gather, the ROK government has only paid out about $3mil, and that to families of war victims, not laborers.
To settle with PI&S forced laborers would mean settling with all the others, too, something that is “too complicated”. And these people are old now. By just going after POSCO on behalf of a subset of the claimants, I imagine their legal strategists see a way to simplify the proceedings.
But yeah, of course I also think they’re suing the wrong party. Gotta feel sorry for the whole abused lot of them, though.
See this 2005 story and links therein.
http://english.chosun.com/w21d.....70043.html
it’s funny how so many here want to talk about legalities to defend immoralities. these folks go on and on about legal contacts, lukewarm apoligies, and scant compensation in an attempt to defend those people who make such perfect weapons for those who love to denigrate those they claim to love.
talking about contracts when talking about comfort women is just unseemly. these women have decided japan’s paltry attempts at atoning for their actions are inadequate. that’s their right. who the hell are you to talk to them about contracts? to me, you folks are really no different than those japanese politician who informed us via the wapo that the comfort women were a bunch of liars who’ve already been compensated and given an apology.
that’s why you guys are worth more than a million finger chops. please continue your discussion.
Eh, comfort women? I thought we were talking about a bunch of forced laborers wanting compensation for it.
“that’s why you guys are worth more than a million finger chops”
I’m fascinated trying to decode this line. It sounds like an insult, and reads as praise. OR is it the “you guys” whom you want millions of fingers chopped from?
Surely Brendon as an attorney, would go after the deep pockets and the ones more likely to pay out a settlement.
Perhaps the South Korean gov could take a little money destined for North Korean infrastructure and set up a fund to return the money to the victims.
‘Eh, comfort women? I thought we were talking about a bunch of forced laborers wanting compensation for it.’ hugh
‘…when this whole COMFORT WOMEN issue came back up in the States, and I’m glad to see someone starting to realize that it wasn’t just the Japanese military who had been fucking the Korean people, but rather the Korean government itself which had taken its own turn at the action. But
COMFORT WOMEN (or forced laborers) suing their own government doesn’t look good in the press, nor follow the lines of ideology set down by the skewed history of modern Korea that most people learn in school, read about in popular books, and see reflected in the media again and again.’ metropolitician
‘A lot of Koreans, including COMFORT WOMEN and non-laborer war victims, and their families, have been trying to get a piece of that money ever since….’ linkd
I’m not a public international lawyer, but I am under the impression that where a state negotiates a peace treaty with a former belligerent, as Korea did with Japan, and claims consular protection over its nationals (as I’m sure Korea did), individuals’ claims against the former belligerent are estopped. Instead, they have to look to their state for compensation, if any.
This doesn’t make me happy. And it’s not “good”. It just is. One of the things we have to get used to as lawyers is the concept that rule of law requires that sometimes the application of established rules may result in grotesque results, and deal with the outcome accordingly.
For example, today on my Korea Law Blog (here comes the shameless plug) I write about how Korea’s traffic law, and silly system of apportioning liability for accidents, keeps me off the road, because I don’t want to accept the liabilities created by the law. I don’t like the law as it stands, but my only remedy is to stay off the roads.
Bingo, parchesi, etc., etc.
In the Treaty, Korea explicitly agreed that its provisions were intended to settle all Korean claims, including all claims of individual Koreans for property, tort and other criminal depredations, that Korea itself would resolve such individual claims and that the only recourse individual Koreans thereafter would have would be against the Korean state. (Japan also extinguished all individual Japanese claims, e.g., for confiscated property, etc.) I doubt that Posco, as a separately incorporated instrumentality of the State, even when it was such an entity, was subject to jurisdiction in such an action; but now that it has been privatized it clearly is not (as Brendon also explained earlier). Koreans need to stop trying to make their internal political problems everyone else’s by looking to Uncle Sucker and, in this case, private foreign investors, to pay the freight for carrying their han. Ditto the whole apology piss-up; it’s really just another aspect of the internal disgruntlement in some quarters with the deal that Korea made in the normalization treaty.
I knew it was bad, but that bad..? I feel vindicated, somehow, for not even having a driving license
Another good thing about cabbing it is that you don’t have to park [of course if you have a driver, *he* has to deal with that pain]. I found the parking problem deterrent enough…
By the way, that settlement with Korea was not “paltry”. It was substantial: US$364 million in cash was three-and-half years’ worth of Korea’s then-prevailing US$100 per-capita GDP for each of one million victims claiming compensation. With soft loans for development reaching US$800 million, eight years’ GDP.
For a definition of “paltry” compensation, and a possible hint why these laborers are suing foreign-invested POSCO and not the Republic of Korea government, check out this one from the excellent Korea Beat blog, which has translated a Chosun Ilbo report on the descendants of a Korean War soldier killed in action defending the Republic of Korea finally receiving, 53 years later, their misplaced (i.e., the Republic of Korea failed to deliver it to them earlier) 50-won death-gratuity settlement from the government. 50 won is a little more than five US cents. A nickel!
This is almost completely off topic but the Danes have just proved it is never too late to say sorry:
http://www.mg.co.za/articlePag.....onal_news/
Who in their right mind thinks that money exchanged between governments without the approval of these individuals somehow shields the companies that profited off their labor?
The Koreans should sue Japanese companies and Japanese government should get their money back.
‘Who in their right mind thinks that money exchanged between governments without the approval of these individuals somehow shields the companies that profited off their labor?’
entraptor
who? well, most of the people here on this blog. man, if i could get someone like brenden to sit with a comfort lady and have him rattle on about contracts, it be worth more than a billion fingerchops. can you imagine? i just could see him berating the little old lady:
YOUR PROBLEM IS WITH SOUTH KOREA AND NOT THE COUNTRY THAT DID THIS TO YOU. TREATIES HAVE BEEN SIGNED!
better than a million fingerchops.
“‘Who in their right mind thinks that money exchanged between governments without the approval of these individuals somehow shields the companies that profited off their labor?”
Well, both the South Korean and Japanese governments for starters. During negotiations, the total amount of compensation demanded was based on a dollar figures per conscripted worker. The South Korean never distributed the money in this way, but that’s what the $800 million total was based on.
“man, if i could get someone like brenden to sit with a comfort lady and have him rattle on about contracts, it be worth more than a billion fingerchops. can you imagine?”
Wouldn’t that be a lawyer’s job? Wouldn’t lawyers working on behalf of comfort women have to touch on the subject of contracts, treaties, etc? This thread concerns a lawsuit. Just because Brenden is explaining the legal angles of the case, doesn’t mean that he - or others posting here - don’t feel sympathy for comfort women. But, that’s what you are suggesting.
# 24,
I’m sure that the comfort women have suffered immensely. I have no doubt about that. However, Park Chung Hee’s government already negotiated the monetary settlement on all of South Korean people’s behalf. The comfort women issue may still be up for debate and it wasn’t addressed specifically by the agreement. The agreement has been signed in 1965. A good summary can be found here: http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/GL23Dg02.html.
Some excerpts:
“Seoul demanded US$364 million compensation for individuals who died, were injured or used as laborers during Japan’s 35-year occupation on the Korean peninsula. Instead, the South Korean government received $800 million, in a combination of grants and low-interest loans, as reparations from Japan.
South Korean dictator Park Chung-hee agreed that after this payment, South Korean citizens would give up their right to make individual claims against the Japanese government. What the declassified documents revealed was that Park only paid out about 2.56 billion won ($251 million) to families killed by the Japanese and 6.6 billion won to owners of destroyed property. None of the thousands of South Koreans conscripted into the Japanese military and labor workforce received compensation.
The remaining money was earmarked for nation-building construction projects. Park’s often-criticized vision of linking Seoul and Busan in the south by expressway became a reality. He poured money into developing infrastructure and heavy industry, especially his favored state-owned business, Pohang Iron & Steel, which later became Posco, one of the world’s top steelmakers.
The Japanese reparation money, along with American foreign aid, was the gratuitous seed money that bootstrapped the South Korean economy into the industrial nation of today.”
Another excerpt regarding the Comfort Women issue:
“Elderly women held protests every Wednesday throughout the cold winter outside the Japanese Embassy. They were the so-called “comfort women”, sex slaves forced to service Japanese troops during World War II. The declassified dossier revealed that no compensation was included for the women subjected to sexual slavery.”
Based on this passage, it looks like the situation with comfort women may still be up for debate, as far as compensation is concerned.