Lawyer groups to urge compensation for colonial rule

Lawyers’ groups in Korea and Japan will issue a joint declaration Saturday that the 1965 bilateral agreement on settling claims over Japanese colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula cannot provide sufficient compensation to individual victims.

The bar associations of the two countries said Friday that they will hold a joint symposium in Tokyo Saturday to present the results of their joint study over the past year. To be announced simultaneously in Seoul and Tokyo, the declaration will say the 1965 agreement cannot resolve issues on Japan’s sexual slavery and forced laborers and Korean victims of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The two associations will also make alternative suggestions and urge Tokyo to conduct a full survey on cultural relics Japan looted from the peninsula and return them to the South.

Choi Bong-tae, chairman of the Korean Bar Association’s human rights subcommittee, said the joint declaration will be officially announced after undergoing final revisions reflecting various opinions. He said the declaration will include "groundbreaking and concrete" content.

Representing Korea at the symposium will be Korean Bar Association Vice Chairman Yang Sam-seung and other lawyers. Japanese Bar Association Vice Chairman Mitsuharu Takagi will lead the Japanese side.

An association of the families of Korean victims of World War II and others from victims groups will also attend the symposium.

In addition, victims of Japanese colonial rule in nine Asian countries, including Korea, will hold a separate event in Tokyo Sunday before visiting the Japanese parliament to demand compensation.

changkim@donga.com