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Controversy over Korea's recent history is likely to continue over the next four or five years as a truth and reconciliation commission re-opens investigations into divisive episodes of the nation's past. The National Assembly on Tuesday passed the Basic Law for Truth and Reconciliation, also known as the history law. Of 299 registered lawmakers, 250 took part in the vote, which broke down 159 in favor, 73 against and 18 abstentions. The law will go into effect in November.
The law is part of a larger attempt by the government to lay the nation's troubled recent past to rest. Under a bill passed in February, a team is looking into collaboration with the Japanese occupiers, while committees in the National Intelligence Service (NIS), police and military are examining dark episodes in the agencies' own past.
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Korean comfort women; Kim Gu; killing of civilians during the Korean War and people standing trial on charges of being involved the People¡¯s Revolution Party plot; the Samchung Re-education Work Camp.
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The law covers major incidents from the last 100 years, from the conclusion of the Eulsa Protectorate Treaty of 1905 that lost Korea its sovereignty to the recent past. It is scheduled to take four years, with a possible extension of another two -- the longest ever in the country. It spares neither leftists nor rightists, North Korean or South Korean governments.
The probe is set to shake up old certainties and could lead to history books being rewritten. Supporters call it an attempt to set history straight, while opponents call it an attempt to turn history on its head.
The law calls for another look at the independence movement during the Japanese colonial period, including apparently the contribution or otherwise of later North Korean leader Kim Il-sung. Kang Man-gil, head of the committee looking into collaboration, recently opened a can of worms when he called Kim Il-sung's partisan group an "independence movement".
Up for re-investigation are human rights abuses by South Korean governments as well as abuses and terrorism by the North Korean regime or pro-North Korean forces, though the right balance could prove problematic. That also goes for investigations of civilian massacres by South Korean, North Korean, U.S. and pro-North Korean partisan forces during the Korean War.
Even within the ruling party, there are those who ask whether trying to fix in place the truth of incidents that happened up to 100 years ago could prove too difficult. Thus there is little material documenting collaboration with the Japanese, and most of those involved are dead. The NIS committee looking into dark episodes that took place 30 years ago or less is already experiencing such difficulties.
There is also the question of overlap between the truth commission's work and probes being carried out separately. The committees announce their investigation results twice a year, and critics predict controversy during regional elections next year, the 2007 presidential election and 2008 general election, that findings are being used for political advantage.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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