Hyangyeop Kwon Proposes Amendment to Exclude Statute of Limitations for State Compensation in Yeosu-Suncheon Incident Act

Constitutional Court Rules Statute of Limitations on State Compensation Claims Unconstitutional
Statute of Limitations Excluded for Claims by Victims
Hyangyeop Kwon: "There Can Be No Statute of Limitations for Victims of State Violence... The State Must Take Responsibility for Restoring Their Honor"

On December 12, Hyangyeop Kwon, Member of the Democratic Party of Korea (representing Suncheon, Gwangyang, Gokseong, and Gurye in South Jeolla Province), announced that she had sponsored a revision to the “Special Act on the Fact-Finding and Restoration of Honor for Victims of the Yeosu-Suncheon 10·19 Incident” (hereinafter referred to as the Yeosu-Suncheon Incident Act). The amendment excludes the statute of limitations from applying to claims for damages by victims and bereaved families of the Yeosu-Suncheon 10·19 Incident (hereinafter referred to as the Yeosu-Suncheon Incident).

Under the current law, victims and bereaved families of the Yeosu-Suncheon Incident who file claims for damages against the state are subject to the general statute of limitations as set out in the Civil Act and the State Compensation Act, as there is no separate provision regarding the statute of limitations.

Hyangyeop Kwon, Member of the Democratic Party of Korea.

The Civil Act stipulates that claims for damages cannot be made if three years have passed since the victim became aware of the damage and the perpetrator, or if ten years have passed since the date of the unlawful act. As a result, there have been cases where, despite being officially recognized as victims or bereaved families, individuals were unable to claim state compensation because the statute of limitations had expired.

In 2018, the Constitutional Court ruled that “applying the objective starting point of the statute of limitations under the Civil Act to collective civilian massacre cases and serious human rights violations or fabricated cases as defined in Article 2, Paragraph 1, Items 3 and 4 of the Framework Act on Clearing up Past Incidents, excessively prioritizes legal stability and the protection of perpetrators, while neglecting the need to guarantee the right to claim state compensation, thereby exceeding the limits of legislative formation and infringing upon the right to claim state compensation.”

The Yeosu-Suncheon Incident falls under the category of “collective civilian deaths, injuries, or disappearances that occurred unlawfully between August 15, 1945, and the period surrounding the Korean War,” as defined in Article 2, Paragraph 1, Item 3 of the “Framework Act on Clearing up Past Incidents for Truth and Reconciliation,” and is therefore directly subject to the Constitutional Court’s ruling of unconstitutionality.

Nevertheless, the current Yeosu-Suncheon Incident Act does not include a provision excluding the statute of limitations, resulting in ongoing contradictions between the Constitutional Court’s decision and the law. The proposed amendment clearly stipulates that the statute of limitations shall not apply to state compensation claims related to the Yeosu-Suncheon Incident.

Hyangyeop Kwon emphasized, “There can be no statute of limitations on the right to claim state compensation for victims of state violence,” and added, “For civilian massacre cases where it took decades to uncover the truth, the state must take full responsibility for restoring the honor of the victims.”