Truth and Reconciliation Commission Welcomes Decision to Withdraw and Forgo Appeals in Samcheong Re-education Camp Case

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission for Past Affairs (Truth and Reconciliation Commission) welcomed the Ministry of Justice's decision to withdraw or forgo appeals in lawsuits regarding state compensation for victims of the Samcheong Re-education Camp.

Yonhap News Agency

On the 29th, Park Sunyoung, Chairperson of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, stated, "Following the cases of the Brothers Home and Seongam Academy, we welcome the government's decision to withdraw and forgo appeals in lawsuits seeking state compensation for victims of the Samcheong Re-education Camp, acknowledging the state's responsibility in line with the purpose of uncovering the truth. We expect that, based on the Commission's truth-finding reports, victims will be able to receive prompt remedies for their rights."

The Samcheong Re-education Camp incident was a large-scale human rights violation that began on August 4, 1980, under martial law proclamation, with 60,755 people being apprehended. Of these, approximately 40,000 were detained in military-run Samcheong Re-education Camps, where they were subjected to illegal detention, beatings, and other forms of abuse.

The Ministry of Justice announced the previous day that, in order to ensure prompt remedies for the victims of the Samcheong Re-education Camp, it would, in principle, withdraw state appeals in cases currently under appeal in the second and third trials. In addition, for future first-instance rulings, the ministry decided to forgo appeals except in exceptional cases where further fact-finding is necessary.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission has maintained that, based on the Constitutional Court's 2018 ruling that Martial Law Proclamation No. 13 was unconstitutional and unlawful, the very act of admitting individuals to the Samcheong Re-education Camp constituted a grave human rights violation resulting from the unlawful exercise of state power. The Commission also argued that all related measures-including apprehension, re-education, forced labor, protective custody, and post-release supervision-were themselves unlawful actions.