Court rejects review of 1965 Korea-Japan treaty

South Korean bereaved family members of victims of World War II hold a press conference in front of the Constitutional Court in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, Dec. 23, 2015. The South Korean court on Wednesday refused to review a complaint over the 1965 treaty between Japan and South Korea that Tokyo uses to deny compensation for South Korean victims of World War II-era slavery. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

The Constitutional Court rejected Wednesday a petition to review the constitutionality of Korea’s 1965 post-occupation agreement with Japan with regard to compensation claims from forced wartime laborers.

The court said it has decided not to review the case because the Korea-Japan Claims Agreement cannot be seen as the grounds for deciding an amount of compensation.

Lee Yoon-jae, the daughter of a forced laborer, filed a constitutional petition with the court in November 2009. She claimed that the provisions of the agreement, which declared all compensation issues “completely and finally” settled, run counter to the Constitution which guarantees property rights.

Before the constitutional petition, Lee filed an administrative suit, claiming that the compensation was not enough as it did not consider the present financial worth of her father’s labor.

The government had paid 11.6 million won to the victim’s daughter, calculated on 1945 prices when the nation was liberated, as stipulated by the law to support the victims of forced wartime labor.

“The agreement is not the grounds that can affect the compensation amount for the administrative suit,” the court said. “Even if it’s unconstitutional, it will not change the outcome of the suit.”

When the two countries normalized diplomatic relations in 1965, the agreement was made to settle claims by the Korean government and its people for compensation for forced labor during Japan’s occupation of the Korean Peninsula (1910-45).

Citing this, Japan has long denied responsibility, claiming that all issues of compensation with Korea were resolved when the agreement was signed in 1965 under the Park Chung-hee administration.

The government received more than $800 million in economic aid and loans from Tokyo, which was used to rebuild the economy in the wake of the Korean War (1950-53).

The issue of sex slaves and forced laborers during World War II has been a bone of contention between Seoul and Tokyo. In the most recent summit in Seoul, President Park Geun-hye and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe shared their views to make efforts toward resolving the dispute.

Previously, the Constitutional Court ruled in 2011 that it was unconstitutional for the Korean government not to help the country’s former sex slaves seek compensation from the Japanese government.

In 2012, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of eight former forced laborers seeking compensation from Japanese firms. However, the firms have yet to compensate them.

(This article was originally published in The Korea Times)