Ministry of Justice Waives Late Interest for Inhyukdang Victims Who Received Excessive Compensation

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyung-min] A victim of the People's Revolutionary Party (Inhyeokdang) Reconstruction Committee case, who had to return part of the excessive state compensation and delayed interest, will be exempted from paying the delayed interest.

On the 20th, the Ministry of Justice announced that under the direction of Minister Han Dong-hoon, the "Meeting of Related Agencies on the Recovery of Excessively Paid State Compensation" decided to exempt victim A of the Inhyeokdang case from paying the delayed interest on the excessive compensation amount owed to the state.

Due to external criticism that the state was engaging in "debt torture" by charging more interest than the principal to be repaid, the government decided to collect only the principal.

According to this decision by the Ministry of Justice, if victim A repays the principal amount of 500 million KRW to the state in installments, the delayed damages (interest) accrued so far (5% per annum until the confirmation of the unjust enrichment return claim lawsuit, and 20% per annum thereafter), approximately 960 million KRW, will be waived.

This case began when the National Intelligence Service requested victims of the Inhyeokdang Reconstruction Committee case, who had been acquitted in a retrial and received provisional state compensation, to return part of the compensation. The Inhyeokdang case is a representative fabricated case of the Yushin regime. Seventy-six victims of this case were acquitted in a retrial and received provisional compensation in 2009 according to the first and second trial rulings of their damage compensation lawsuits against the state. However, in 2011, the Supreme Court changed its precedent, ruling that the delayed damages (interest) on the compensation were excessively calculated and had to be returned to the government.

Victims who received provisional compensation had to return the excess amount, but 28 of them could not pay due to financial hardship. Among them, the state filed a lawsuit against victim A in 2013 to recover 500 million KRW of excess compensation and won, and in 2017 applied for compulsory execution at A's residence.

This led to criticism from some civil society groups calling it "debt torture" by the state. The National Human Rights Commission of Korea also expressed an opinion in 2019 to former President Moon Jae-in that the state should actively provide relief.

Eventually, victim A filed a lawsuit in the same year to prohibit compulsory execution, and the court recommended reconciliation to exempt the interest on the 4th of last month. The Ministry of Justice (approval agency), Seoul High Prosecutors' Office (supervisory agency), and National Intelligence Service (litigation agency), which held the meeting that day, decided to accept the reconciliation recommendation.

Minister Han Dong-hoon said, "It is difficult to say that there was a fault by the state during the compensation process, but the so-called 'give and take back' process caused the public to be placed in an unfair situation," adding, "There is no place for factional or political logic in resolving the public's grievances."

The National Intelligence Service stated regarding this decision, "From the perspective of sincerely reflecting on past human rights violations and comforting the victims, we proactively sought alternatives and solutions," and "We actively expressed our position to accept the reconciliation recommendation by reviewing this issue, which past governments failed to resolve, in a progressive manner."

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