Interest on Retirement Pension Returned to Military Widows... Court Rules "Illegal Disposition"

[Asia Economy Reporter Seongpil Cho] The family of a soldier who was forcibly discharged and received a retirement pension due to the so-called 'Yun Pil-yong treason conspiracy case' won a lawsuit challenging the military authorities' decision to reclaim part of the pension.

According to the legal community on the 18th, the Seoul Administrative Court Administrative Division 4 (Chief Judge Han Won-kyo) ruled in favor of the plaintiff in a lawsuit filed by the spouse and children of the late retired soldier A against the Director of the Armed Forces Financial Management Corps, seeking cancellation of the decision to reclaim previously paid military pension funds. The court stated, "Even if the recipient of the pension has passed away, the pension cannot be reclaimed from the heirs," and added, "The defendant's (Armed Forces Financial Management Corps) reclaim decision is an illegal disposition that violates the principle of protection of trust."

Mr. A, who served as a colonel, was detained in the corps security unit in April 1973 during the so-called 'Yun Pil-yong treason conspiracy case.' While detained, he was forced to write a discharge application and left the military in the same month. The Yun Pil-yong treason conspiracy case involved Yun Pil-yong, then Major General and Commander of the Capital Security Command, who allegedly told Central Intelligence Agency Director Lee Hu-rak at a drinking party that "President Park Chung-hee is aging, so you should become the successor," which later escalated into a coup rumor. During the investigation, the security command forced officers connected to former Commander Yun to write discharge applications, and it was revealed during subsequent trials that Mr. A was also coerced into writing his discharge application.

In November 2017, the Ministry of National Defense nullified Mr. A's discharge and reissued his discharge effective November 30, 1981. The Armed Forces Financial Management Corps paid approximately 1.56 billion KRW in total, including about 700 million KRW principal and 860 million KRW interest, as retirement pension in January 2018. However, after Mr. A's death in 2019, the Corps notified the family of a reclaim for the interest portion of the pension, stating that there was no separate legal provision for paying interest and that it was paid in error. The family filed a lawsuit in December last year challenging this decision.

The court ruled in favor of the family based on the former Military Pension Act, which states that "reclaim decisions can only be made from the person who received the pension." The court explained, "The heirs are not included among those from whom the pension should be reclaimed, and since the spouse made a limited approval and the children renounced inheritance, the reclaim decision is inappropriate," adding, "Reclaiming the interest seriously infringes on the plaintiffs' property rights."