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A truth and reconciliation commission will be tasked with reinvestigating the country's last 100 years beginning with its colonization by Japan under a belated agreement between the ruling and opposition parties. The investigation would go on for four years initially, with a possible extension for another two.
The floor leaders of the ruling Uri Party, Chung Se-kyun, and main opposition Grand National Party, Kang Jae-sup, on Monday reached agreement on a controversial history law, the Basic Law for Truth and Reconciliation. Subject to approval by their respective caucuses on Tuesday, the two parties are slated to pass the bill in parliamentary session on Tuesday or Wednesday.
The bill targets human rights abuses since the nation's liberation from Japanese rule in 1945, the independence struggle, the history of overseas Koreans, and civilian massacres by the Right and Left prior to, during and after the 1950-53 Korean War. Also to be probed are human rights abuses and suspected manufactured charges by security forces since liberation, and terror and human rights abuses by "forces negating or being hostile to the legitimacy of the Republic of Korea."
The investigation will be overseen by a 15-member truth and reconciliation commission headed by a chairman in the rank of a Cabinet minister. The National Assembly will nominate eight commissioners, the president four and the supreme justice three. Eligible are attorneys-at-law, college professors, civil servants of grade three or above and priests with careers of 10 years or more.
The commission's will be doing its work for four years, with a possdible extension for another two if necessary. It will submit two interim reports a year to the president and National Assembly.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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