Chairman Park Chung-hee of the Supreme Council for National Reconstruction speaks with Prime Minister Hayato Ikeda during a welcome dinner at the Japanese prime minister’s residence on the evening of November 11, 1961. (Image source: National Archives of Korea)
SUWON, Sept. 15 (Korea Bizwire) — More than six decades after they were arrested and branded as traitors, two former university students have won damages from the South Korean government for their wrongful detention during mass protests against the 1964 South Korea–Japan normalization talks.
The Suwon District Court ruled Sunday that the state must compensate Baek Kwang-su and Cha Jin-mo, who were imprisoned under martial law after joining demonstrations against the controversial negotiations. Judge Kim Yong-hee ordered the government to pay Baek about 55 million won ($40,000) and Cha about 49 million won.
On June 3, 1964, thousands of students and citizens poured into Seoul’s streets to oppose the talks, which many viewed as a humiliating bargain with Japan, only two decades after the end of its colonial rule. The government responded by declaring emergency martial law, banning rallies, censoring the press and criminalizing dissent.
Baek, then a student, was detained the day before the protests while preparing banners near Namdaemun Market. Cha was picked up by police during random identity checks the following day. Military prosecutors charged them with conspiracy to commit insurrection — an allegation carrying the weight of treason — and they were jailed even after martial law was lifted in late July.
Police officers brutally drag away students from Seoul National University of Liberal Arts and Sciences who took part in protests against the Korea-Japan talks in 1961. (Source: Memorial Foundation for Democracy Movement/Kyunghyang Shinmun)
Although Parliament called for their release that September and prosecutors dropped the cases, the young men’s lives had already been deeply scarred. Nearly 60 years later, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission concluded in 2023 that the arrests were “grave human rights violations” driven by an unlawful martial decree and urged the state to apologize.
The court agreed, ruling that the martial proclamation lacked constitutional grounds and violated due process and basic freedoms. “The decree was unconstitutional and void,” Judge Kim wrote, adding that the warrantless arrests and prosecutions were arbitrary acts of state power intended to suppress dissent.
In assessing damages, the court noted the physical and psychological suffering the men endured, the disruption to their early adult lives, and the decades-long delay in redress.
The ruling adds a new chapter to South Korea’s long struggle to reckon with the authoritarian measures used to suppress dissent during periods of political turmoil, particularly surrounding the contentious normalization of ties with Tokyo.
M. H. Lee (mhlee@koreabizwire.com)
