Some of these figures contributed to or benefitted from Japan's colonization of Korea, and some actively worked to counter the Korean independence movement.
Eighteen others had their civil rights suspended, six others were declared innocent and the remaining two were found guilty but were exempted from punishment.
The next of South Korea's prominent dictators, Park Chung Hee, was himself a collaborator who served in the Imperial Japanese military system.
[7] An early study into collaborators was done by "maverick scholar" Im Chongguk (1929–1989), whose 1966 work Ch'inil Munhak-ron (친일문학론 Treatise on Pro-Japanese Literature) broke the silence on the subject matter.
Chongguk's personal zeal about honestly examining darker pages from national history were not very popular in his day, but by the 1990s, his legacy had strengthened and the topic became more accepted by the South Korean public.
The newly enacted Special Law on the Inspection of Collaborations for the Japanese Imperialism[9] defines "pro-Japanese and anti-national actions" (chinilpa) as follows.
On August 29, 2005, a civic organization, the Institute for Research in Collaborationist Activities disclosed a list of 3094 Korean collaborator suspects including Park Chung Hee, the former Korean president, Kim Seong-su, a former publisher of The Dong-A Ilbo and the founder of Korea University, and Bang Eung-mo [ko], a former president of The Chosun Ilbo.
[13] On August 13, 2007, the commission decided to confiscate about 1 million square meters of land valued at 25.7 billion won that is now owned by the descendants of another ten pro-Japanese collaborators.
[15][16][17] The list includes Song Byeong-jun who sent letters to the Japanese government asking for a merger, Lee Ji-yong, who is one of the Five Eulsa Traitors, Lee Doo-hwang, who participated in the murder of Empress Myeongseong in 1895 and later became a governor of the North Jeolla Province, a novelist Yi In-jik, the author of Hyeoleuinu (Tears of Blood), Yoo Hak-ju, a council member of the Iljinhoe, Bae Jeong-ja, foster daughter of the first Resident-General of Korea who spied on Korean independence activists and recruited comfort women, and Park Je-bin, who formed a tribute group to pay condolences at Ito's funeral in 1926.
On the same day, the Seoul administrative court rejected a lawsuit against the commission to erase the names of the son and grandson of Daewon-gun (father of Gojong of the Korean Empire) from the list, who allegedly attended the signing of the Japan-Korea Annexation Treaty as representatives of the royal family.