Ministry of Justice Wins Suit to Recover 2.7 Billion Won in Pro-Japanese Property at First Trial

"Even property disposed of before the law took effect is subject to recovery"

The Ministry of Justice won in full at the first trial of a lawsuit seeking the recovery of pro-Japanese property worth about 2.7 billion won from the descendants of the late Shin Wooseon, a pro-Japanese collaborator who served as an associate councilor of the Japanese Government-General of Korea’s Central Council during the Japanese colonial period.

The Ministry of Justice building in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province. Yonhap News.

The Ministry of Justice said on the 12th that the Goyang Branch of the Uijeongbu District Court recently ruled entirely in favor of the state in a lawsuit against Shin’s descendants seeking the return of unjust enrichment from the sale of pro-Japanese property and the registration of ownership transfers.

The lawsuit concerned 14 parcels of land in Ilsandong-gu, Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, subdivided from land Shin acquired in 1913 and 1917 through land assessments (査定·administrative dispositions determining landowners and boundaries). His descendants sold 13 of the parcels between 1993 and 2005. The Ministry of Justice filed suit to recover about 2.43 billion won in sale proceeds and one parcel still held by the descendants, with an officially assessed value of about 270 million won.

The ministry said the ruling reaffirmed the legal principle that the state can recover proceeds from the sale of pro-Japanese property even if it was sold to a third party before December 2005, when the law on vesting pro-Japanese property in the state took effect. In December 2016, the Supreme Court ruled that the law also covers property disposed of to third parties before it took effect.

The court also rejected the descendants’ argument that the state’s right to claim the return of unjust enrichment had expired under the five-year statute of limitations in the National Finance Act, ruling that the argument constituted an abuse of rights. In December 2024, the Supreme Court ruled that descendants of pro-Japanese collaborators cannot invoke the statute of limitations because doing so constitutes an abuse of rights, citing the public interest in vesting such property in the state.

Lee Jinsu, acting Minister of Justice, said, "This ruling will be an important milestone for the recovery work of the second Pro-Japanese Property Investigation Committee, which will launch on December 3," adding, "We will make every effort to ensure the committee launches successfully."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.