Supreme Court confirm‎s compensation for May 18 Gwangju movement victims

Eight hundred and forty survivors and bereaved families of the May 18 Gwangju Democratization Movement achieved victory in a damages lawsuit against the Korean government. This marks the largest group to participate in a lawsuit asserting the right of May 18 movement survivors to claim state compensation.

According to legal sources on Sunday, the First Division of the Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling on Thursday, ordering the government to pay 43.065 billion won in compensation to 840 survivors and bereaved families. The decision was confirmed without further deliberation under the Supreme Court's procedure for dismissing cases without substantive review when no issues are found with lower court rulings.

In May 2021, the Constitutional Court declared unconstitutional a provision of the May 18 Compensation Act that prohibited claims for mental damages by individuals who had already received compensation from the government for the uprising. Following the ruling, 840 survivors and bereaved families filed a lawsuit six months later, seeking 94.3 billion won in damages.

In September this year, the appellate court upheld the compensation standards set in the first trial: 300 thousand won per day for detention, five million won for non-disabling injuries, 30 million won for disabling injuries, and 400 million won for deaths, while deducting previously received criminal compensation amounts from the awarded damages. Additionally, by correcting the detention days and disability grades for 12 plaintiffs, the compensation was increased by 399 million won compared to the first trial (42.666 billion won).


김태언 기자 beborn@donga.com