Truth and Reconciliation Commission (South Korea)
On October 17, 1972, Park Chung-hee declared martial law, dissolving the national assembly and putting forth the Yushin Constitution, which gave the president effective control of parliament, leading to civil unrest and the jailing of hundreds of dissidents.
Considering that the foreign exchange rate was 100% and the earned dollars in the past were valued much higher than today, the Korean miners and nurses in West Germany were estimated to have greatly contributed to Korea's economic growth.
A significant finding reveals that the commercial loan from West Germany was not a result of the German Commerzbank forcefully holding wages of the dispatched Korean miners and nurses.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission recommended that the Korean government collect relevant documents and make full use of them for educational purposes, as well as to take adequate actions to prevent the spread of false information.
[6] The commission's scope included political killings, torture, forced disappearances, unfair trials, and other human rights abuses committed through the illegal exercise of state power.
Without a warrant, the security forces forcibly detained Lim Seong-kook in July 1985 and placed him under custody for an espionage charge based on a suspicion that he might be in contact and cooperating with North Korean spies.
[citation needed] Park Hae-jeon, et al., concerned 11 residents of Geumsan and Daejon, whose occupations included teacher, student, salaryman, soldier, and housewife, had held regular meetings between May 1980 and July 1981 based on friendship originating from their school days.
The commission found that the organizations concerned, including South Chungcheong Province’s Provisional Police Agency conducted illegal confinement and brutal torture, and improperly pressed charges on the victims without sufficient evidence.
At the time, the United Nations attempted a sudden landing maneuver in Incheon to reverse the course of the war, and Wolmido Island was a strategically significant location that needed to be secured.
On Sept. 10, 1950, five days before the Inchon landing, 43 United States Air Force (USAF) aircraft dropped 93 napalm canisters over Wolmido's eastern slope to clear the way for American troops.
In most cases, arrested Bodo League members or sympathizers were forcefully held in storage spaces near police stations for several days before being summarily executed at sites such as remote valleys in deep forest, isolated islands or abandoned mine areas.
[16] The commission found that 256 people were killed in Uljin, Gangwon Province, by South Korea's police forces, the Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC), and the 3rd ROK Army after being accused of siding with local leftists.
The summary executions of civilians without adequate judicial process were crimes against humanity, and the victims' descendants experienced social discrimination in McCarthyist, pre-democratic South Korea.
The commission's investigation found that the perpetrators of the Geumsan massacre were members of the regional self-defense forces, communist partisans, local leftists residing in the area, and North Korean troops who fell behind their main regiments.
[citation needed] The TRCK found that, between late October 1948 and July 1949 in Gurye County, shortly after the Yeo-Sun Incident, a large number of civilians were illegitimately killed as South Korean troops and police forces conducted military operations to subdue communist insurgents.
The Gurye Police Office detained civilians suspected of collaborating with local communist partisans and commonly tortured their captives before executing them and concealing their bodies in nearby areas or on Mt.
The members of the Korean Youth Association (대한청년단; 大韓靑年團) in Gurye also directly or indirectly abetted these systematic operations of mass killings by providing groundless accusations and supporting the extermination of those affiliated with communist guerillas or local leftists.
The commission found that the killing of innocent civilians by the public authorities in Yeosu and Suncheon greatly transgressed the constitutional legality given to the military and police force at the time.
The commission advised the government to officially apologize to the bereaved families of the victims, restore the honor of the dead, revise historical records in accordance with its findings, and reinforce education in sustaining peace.
The TRCK found that the Naju Police Special Forces were responsible for the atrocity, and recommended that the government officially apologize to the families of the victims, restore the honor of the dead, and implement preventive measures.
[citation needed] The Commission ascertained that members of the Bodo League in the Miryang region were massacred by the local police and the South Gyeongsang Province CIC between July and August 1950.
[citation needed] The Commission found that regional members of the Bodo League and those in preventive detention were killed by the local police and CIC forces between July and August 1950.
[citation needed] The Commission determined that in July 1950, approximately 270 regional Bodo League members and those held in preventive detention were illegally victimized by the military and police forces in Yeongdeok County, North Gyeongsang Province.
[citation needed] The Commission found that regional Bodo League members and those in preventive detention were killed by the Busan CIC, the military, and local police between July and September 1950.
[citation needed] A project was undertaken to conduct a survey of the number of civilian victims of the mass killings the took place during the Korean War, carried out in collaboration with outside research teams.
In 2007, the Seokdang Research Institute at Dong-a University carried out a survey of civilian victims in the cities of Gimhae and Gongju, as well as rural areas in Jeolla, Chuncheong, Gyeongsang, and Gyeonggi provinces.
Additionally, the TRCK paid special attention to civic groups in order to collect diverse opinions and build an alliance to raise awareness and promote its mission through seminars and forums.
[citation needed] Since the conservative Grand National Party (한나라당) came to power in Korea in February 2008, led by the new president Lee Myung-bak, some perceive that the commission's resources and mandate have become more vulnerable.
[citation needed] In November, 2008, Shin Ji-ho, a lawmaker from the conservative Grand National Party, proposed a draft bill to merge multiple truth-finding commissions into one, the TRCK, a move which was met with strong resistance from progressives.
On November 26, 2008,[17] American academic historian and author Bruce Cumings criticized the Lee's administration's handling of the textbook selection process in his interview with[18] The Hankyoreh daily.
