According to Yonhap News, on August 15, South Korean President Li Jae-myn attended the commemoration ceremony of Korea's Liberation Day and delivered a speech. In his speech, Li Jae-myn stated that he would investigate and recover the improperly accumulated property of those who were pro-Japanese and anti-national, thereby holding them accountable for their historical actions.
Speaking of South Korea-Japan relations, Lee Jae-myung said that to continue the development of these relations, it is essential for the people of both countries to build a solid mutual trust. This trust stems from an understanding and sincere empathy towards each other's historical traumas. To this day, victims and their survivors still bear the weight of historical wounds. New South Korea-Japan relations should bring warmth to them. He hopes that South Korea and Japan will become truly "close neighbors" based on deep mutual trust, and together create a peaceful and prosperous future for the next 60 years.
In terms of national development vision, Lee Jae-ming proposed that South Korea needs a 'new recovery' to drive its nation forward, creating a 'South Korea that no other nation can replace'. Faced with significant transformations in civilization history and drastic changes in international order, South Korea should not just focus on what is impossible to achieve, but should actively create possibilities.
According to Xinhua News Agency reports, in December 2005, the Korean Parliament passed the ‘Special Law on the National Ownership of Properties of Japanese-Friendly and Anti-National Actors’ for the first time. This law incorporated the properties acquired by anti-national actors during the Japanese colonial rule through Japanese-friendly actions into the scope of national recovery efforts. In July 2006, the ‘Investigation Committee on Properties of Japanese-Friendly and Anti-National Actors’ was established to handle the investigation, determination, and recovery of such properties. However, due to legal regulations stipulating that the committee’s mandate was limited to four years, it was disbanded after its term expired in 2010. Since then, there has been no specialized agency responsible for investigating such properties. Meanwhile, some descendants of Japanese-friendly actors began disposing of these properties by selling them, transferring them, or dispersing their ownership rights to third parties.
To address this issue, the South Korean government promoted a new law in this year. On May 7th, the South Korean Parliament passed the 'Special Law on the National Ownership of Property of Pro-Japanese and Anti-National Actors'. This law was officially enacted on June 2nd. According to the regulations, the law will come into effect on December 2nd.
