Korea Liberation Association: "Expand Staff for Investigations into Recovery of Pro-Japanese Assets... Raise Reward Cap"

"Extend the reward application deadline to 60 days after the committee's activities end"
"Raise the payment cap above 50 million won" proposed

The Korean Liberation Association called for securing specialized personnel and establishing a cooperation system with relevant agencies to strengthen its capacity to investigate the reversion of pro-Japanese collaborators' assets to the state. It also proposed extending the deadline for applying for rewards for reporting such assets until 60 days after the committee's activities end and raising the payment cap from 50 million won.

Lee Jong-chan, president of the Korean Liberation Association. Yonhap News Agency

The Korean Liberation Association said on October 20 that it had submitted legislative comments on the “Draft Enforcement Decree of the Special Act on the National Reversion of Property of Pro-Japanese and Anti-National Collaborators” through the National Participation Legislative Center.

The association said the draft decree provides for the committee's membership and the use of expert advisers and support staff, but that these provisions are insufficient to build actual investigative capacity. It said specialized personnel should be secured in areas including historical and archival analysis, tax and accounting, financial transaction analysis, and litigation and enforcement, and that annual plans for staffing, training, and budgets should be drawn up.

It also called for establishing designated contact points and standardized procedures for requesting and responding to data so that cooperation on records from relevant central government agencies and local governments leads to substantive investigations.

The association also called for improvements to the reward system. The draft decree sets the application deadline for rewards at 60 days before the committee's activities end, but the association said it should be extended to 60 days after they end. This would prevent reporters from being disadvantaged by delays in investigations or decisions. It also called for raising the payment cap of 50 million won in line with the actual amount recovered and the contribution made by the reporter.

The Korean Liberation Association plans to hold a public hearing on revisions to the draft decree on November 11 in the main auditorium on the third floor of the Korean Liberation Association Hall.

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