Uri Compensation Bills: Excessive?

If the 10 bills on the correction of past wrongdoing proposed by the ruling Uri Party are passed in the national assembly, the government will set aside additional budget money amounting to 2.381 trillion won to carry out the plan over the next five years. In addition to this, the current 15 relevant committees will be increased to 21.

Of these 10 bills, five have either passed or are pending review by a standing committee, and four are ready for examination by the standing committee.

The ruling party plans to pass all of the bills by the time the Roh government comes to an end next year. This is likely to trigger great controversy later.

First of all, it is doubtful whether the government can raise such great amount of money. Jang Bok-sim, lawmaker of the ruling Uri Party, sponsored a bill for the compensation of victims during the Pacific War. According to the bill, to provide war victims with living expenses, medical care, housing, and the like, 1.6835 trillion won should be added to the national budget for five years.

This is the lowest estimate because Jang underestimated the number of beneficiaries to be 25,500 persons. The Budget and Policy Bureau estimated the additional cost to be 5.5696 trillion won with assumption that 616,679 victims are eligible for compensation. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Planning and Budget estimated the cost to be 44.7 trillion won and suggested that 1,032,000 were eligible.

Stressing such different estimates according to government bodies, experts argued that the committee should carry out a precise examination before passing the bills because it is very likely that the estimated cost will increase later.

In addition to this, a bill presented by Kim Jae-hong, lawmaker of the ruling Uri Party, titled “A special act for compensation and restoration of honor of victims from the suppression of the press after the nation’s independence in 1945,” may require as much as 154.6 billion won.

Furthermore, a bill for compensation and restoration of honor of victims of the democratization movement, which was passed December 4, extends the movement period from August 7, 1969 to March 24, 1964 when the first rally against the Korean-Japanese Conference was held. This is expected to generate additional costs amounting to 19.28 billion won.

In addition to the matter of money, these bills also have many elements that contradict the constitution and other laws and are far short of meeting requirements to be a law. Because of this, a panel of experts indicated limitations of these bills in a report presented to the standing committees.

One expert belonging to the Health and Welfare Committee indicated that, “The bill for supporting Pacific War victims is being presented to support the offspring of war victims rather than directly helping the victims. It is a kind of compensation.” He added that “This is, however, hardly regarded as compensation because individuals who suffered losses inflicted by the government should be eligible for compensation from the government.”

Furthermore, this bill overlaps with an act for supporting the living of former comfort women during Japanese colonial rule. We have to consider that according to a special act for revealing the truth of forced mobilization during Japanese colonial rule, a similar investigation has already began.

In regard to a bill of special act for compensation and restoration of honor of victims from the suppression of the press after the nation’s independence in 1945, one expert belonging to the Culture and Tourism Committee also said that it is the work of courts to judge the wrongdoing conducted by the government in past and to estimate the amount of consequent compensation, and thus, it is problematic to solve such problems by establishing special committees.

ditto@donga.com