The Ministry of Justice said on the 15th that it filed lawsuits with the Seoul Central District Court and others seeking registration of ownership transfer and restitution of unjust enrichment for 24 parcels of land, including land in Ilsandong-gu, Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, owned by descendants of pro-Japanese anti-national collaborators ▲ Shin U-seon ▲ Park Hee-yang ▲ Lim Seon-jun.
The Ministry of Justice said it reviewed related official records, including land survey ledgers, forest land survey ledgers, and certified copies of closed registries from the Japanese colonial period, and examined investigation records of the Committee for the Investigation of Property of Pro-Japanese and Anti-National Collaborators kept at the National Archives, concluding that the land in question constitutes pro-Japanese property. Based on that, it said it determined that legal measures are possible, such as attribution of the land to the state or recovery of sale proceeds if it was transferred to a third party, and it has begun litigation procedures.
Article 3 of the Special Act on the Attribution to the State of Property of Pro-Japanese and Anti-National Collaborators stipulates that property acquired as compensation for collaborating with Japan from the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War, when the deprivation of national sovereignty began, to Liberation—so-called pro-Japanese property—belongs to the state. However, if a third party paid a legitimate price and acquired the property from the descendants of the pro-Japanese anti-national collaborator, the state may recover the sale proceeds as unjust enrichment.
Minister Jung Sung-ho of the Ministry of Justice said, "We will realize the constitutional ideals of the March 1 Independence Movement by attributing to the state the property formed through pro-Japanese and anti-national acts," and added, "We will also work to enact a bill to reestablish the Pro-Japanese Property Investigation Committee so that recovery can be carried out more thoroughly."