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SEOUL, Oct. 22 (Korea Bizwire) — More than 40 years after being forcibly sent to the notorious Samcheong Reeducation Camp under the military regime of Chun Doo-hwan, a victim has won a rare court-ordered compensation from the South Korean government.
The Seoul Central District Court recently ruled that the state must pay 95 million won (about US$68,000) to a man identified only as A, who was arrested in 1980 under martial law, subjected to so-called “reform education,” and later placed under two years of protective custody before being released in August 1981.
The Samcheong Reeducation Camp, established between August 1980 and January 1981, was one of the darkest institutions of Chun’s military rule. Officially created under “Plan No. 5” of the National Defense Emergency Measures Committee, it was portrayed as a campaign to “purify society” but in practice became a tool of mass detention, forced labor, and systematic human rights abuse.
Tens of thousands were arbitrarily rounded up — not only gang members but also workers who protested unpaid wages, journalists who criticized the government, farmers who argued over irrigation, elderly citizens accused of sympathizing with opposition leader Kim Dae-jung, and even students or housewives detained over trivial disputes. Many were beaten, tortured, or killed.
Shadows of the Samcheong Camp: Court Acknowledges State Responsibility at Last (Yonhap)
A, now in his 60s, sued the government last October seeking 200 million won for psychological suffering. The state argued the claim had expired, citing a three-year statute of limitations that began when the Constitutional Court and Supreme Court issued rulings on Samcheong victims between 2018 and 2019.
But Judge Kim Nana rejected the argument, noting that “it would have been difficult for a non-expert like the plaintiff to immediately recognize the legal implications of those rulings.”
The court said the plaintiff endured “unlawful confinement by state authorities, forced ideological training, and compulsory labor, resulting in severe physical and mental suffering.” It added that systemic and deliberate rights violations by public officials warranted higher compensation to deter similar abuses, and that inflation and changes in currency value over the decades should be factored in.
Chun’s military junta, which seized power after the May 1980 coup, had established the National Defense Emergency Measures Committee (known as Gukbowi) to control all branches of government. Under the guise of social purification, the committee purged political dissidents, dismissed journalists and civil servants, and merged media outlets — while using the Samcheong system to instill fear among ordinary citizens.
The ruling marks another step in South Korea’s reckoning with its authoritarian past, recognizing the state’s direct responsibility for one of its most brutal instruments of repression.
Jerry M. Kim (jerry_kim@koreabizwire.com)
