Sung Soo Kim

Reveals the legacy of a dark period in the country’s history

When was the Truth and Reconciliation Commission established and what is its brief?

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was established by the government of South Korea in December 2005. The scope of the TRC’s investigations covers the following five areas: the anti-Japanese movement during the colonial period and the history of the Korean Diaspora; the massacre of civilians after 1945; human rights abuses by the state; incidents of dubious conviction and suspicious death; reinvestigation of the above categories and other incidents as determined by the Commission.

When were the massacres?

In the summer of 1950, at the start of the Korean conflict, the government of Syngman Rhee in the South ordered mass executions totaling around one hundred thousand innocent civilians throughout South Korea. The figures remain uncertain. The victims were targeted as left wing and communist sympathizers. It was during the opening months of the war. The North Korean forces were moving south. The government feared that those with left wing sympathies would collaborate with the invading army.

It was a dark chapter in the history of South Korea?

Yes. A tragic one. The execution of political prisoners and ‘suspected communists’ may have been practised without due process in every isolated valley of South Korea. I was shocked to learn about it: its existence, its magnitude and the minutiae of its implementation. It was a war crime, a crime against humanity.
Extraordinarily, the killings were hidden for half a century?

Information was not available until 2000. Then access to primary sources became available. For many years the story was hushed up. It was simply not talked about.

The dead cannot remember or talk – but thousands of others could?

Millions were implicated in and touched by this tragedy, if we include their friends and families.

There were thousands of order givers and planners, thousands of executioners, and thousands of witnesses and observers. All these people have been silent for over half a century.

How was it possible that this was kept secret?

I think the victims and bereaved families were afraid of further retaliation from the dictatorial regime. The perpetrators justified their behaviour as necessary to build a new state – ‘the means justifies the end’.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission is not just digging up facts, it is digging up thousands of skeletons.

Yes. In 2007 and 2008, the TRC excavated more than 1,000 skeletons in total from nine sites, and in 2009, more than 500 skeletons were excavated from four other sites. Through the methodical excavation of massacre sites, forensic examinations, and interviews with eyewitnesses, the commission has verified 4,934 of what many believe may have been tens of thousands of unlawful executions.

In Northern Ireland some oppose the establishment of a TRC with the argument: why pick at the wounds of the past?

I think that human history or the past is like the root of a tree. We cannot expect a tree to flourish if we cut its roots. Equally, we cannot dream of building a bright future while we ignore our history.

The TRC’s truth-finding activities are not only to settle the grievances of the individual victims, but they also function as preventive measures against a recurrence of the same sort of incidents in the future. Its goal is to prevent a distorted past leading to a distorted present and future.

Korea is the only country in Asia that reveals its shameful past to the public. However painful it may be, knowing the truth can help us build a better society in the future.

How important is listening?

Listening is very, very, important in any reconciliation process. Today, someone who was unfairly accused has an opportunity to talk. Listening to their story is so important. Talking about it is a way of dealing with it. But for so many people in Korea it was not possible to talk about it for many years.

There was one woman who was twelve years old in 1951. Her parents were massacred by their own government and she grew up like an orphan. She was bullied in school as ‘offspring of a commie’. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission offered a way for her to talk and to be listened to. She had been quiet for over a half century.

What are the most important things now?

One is for the government to acknowledge that wrongs were done to the people and that an official apology be given. The second is the importance, in the process of reconciliation, of issues such as re-trial and compensation. As the Commission closed down at the end of 2010, I wish the South Korean government would consider establishing a follow-up reconciliation body, as recommended by the Commission.

Truth?

It depends on your point of view. Truth can be seen differently. It depends on who you listen to. Our job was to listen to witnesses of the events. To give people a voice.

What about forgiveness?

That is a personal matter. If the perpetrator of a crime genuinely makes an apology, it is good. There has to be honesty in the process.

Ham Sok Hon, who was twice nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize, was a remarkable Korean and a Quaker.

He was a role model and, as a human rights activist, influenced me greatly. He showed me the way. He was regarded as a heretic but that was wrong. There were only twenty Quakers in a population of forty-seven-million South Koreans, so they were a drop in the ocean of the mainstream Korean religions. He was no threat, but he was in and out of prison his entire life. I admired him greatly.

What about his Quakerism?

He saw Quakerism as a religion which was tolerant and pursuing social justice. It was one that could accommodate change and accept other faiths. He saw the common ground that was possible and recognized a connection between nationalism and cosmopolitanism at a time when the world was growing increasingly interconnected. I myself became more tolerant of different opinions and paths through Quakerism, and I too try to pursue social justice, as Ham did throughout his entire life.

What did he teach you?

I am immeasurably indebted to Ham Sok Hon himself. It will soon be eighteen years since I first met him, and over nine years since he died. But the longer I live the more I am conscious of how much I owe him. Specifically, it was he who inspired me to become an historian rather than continue as an engineer; to become a latitudinarian rather than a fundamentalist, a humanist rather than an evangelical and a romantic rather than a puritan. It was he who taught me to love and enjoy history and philosophy, and all the most important things I needed to learn about life and humanity. For me, he has been a window through to the Truth, Tao and God.

Background to the Korean War: 1950-1953

The background to the war lay in the physical division of Korea into two parts following the end of the second world war.
In 1945, after the surrender of Japan, which had ruled the Korean peninsula since 1910, American administrators divided the peninsula along the 38th parallel. The United States occupied the southern part of the peninsula and the Soviet Union the northern part.

The division between the two sides was exacerbated by the failure to hold free elections throughout the Korean peninsula in 1948 and the establishment of a communist government in the north. The 38th parallel became a political border and, while re-unification negotiations continued in the months preceding the war, tensions intensified.
A period of skirmishes escalated into open warfare when North Korean forces invaded South Korea in June 1950. The United Nations, particularly the United States, came to the aid of South Korea.

In the run up to the Korean War the first President of South Korea, Syngman Rhee, had around 30,000 alleged communists in his prisons and about 300,000 suspected communist sympathizers enrolled in an official ‘re-education programme’ known as the Bodo League. When the Korean War started these prisoners, and the members of the Bodo League, were perceived by many loyal to Syngman Rhee as a potential threat to the government of the south and a source of support for the invading communist forces. The story of the atrocities committed by forces loyal to the South Korean government of Synhman Rhee on prisoners and members of the Bobo League was suppressed for over half a century.

Sung Soo Kim was in London working with Stuart Morton of Quaker Peace & Social Witness when he gave the Friend this interview.

---

Comments

quote ; to become a latitudinarian rather than a fundamentalist, a humanist rather than an evangelical and a romantic rather than a puritan. What’s Wrong with Evangelical Christians?What’s wrong with me? what Is wrong with being a fundamentalist? What’s wrong with being a puritan? But notice,that Jesus did say, do not judge in friendship Guy,

By GUY JANSSENS on 15th January 2011 - 20:34

---

Please login to add a comment