<Anchor>

In the 1930s, Japan took tens of thousands of Koreans to Sakhalin, their land, and returned home after the war. The abandoned Sakhalin nationals are not being reimbursed by Japan, and the Korean government is not accepting a request for mediation.

Reporter Kim Gi-tae listened to the story.

<Reporter>

This is a statement submitted to the Constitutional Court of Korea by the Park Geun-hye administration in July 2013.

It is stated that the Sakhalin Koreans are excluded because the claim agreement applies to the citizens of the nationality at the time of conclusion.

In 1965, when the Korea-Japan Bill of Rights was signed, Sakhalin Koreans had no Korean nationality, so they had to dismiss their lawsuits because they were not entitled to issue claims.

The current Ministry of Foreign Affairs also maintained its position as saying, “We will make a diplomatic effort.”

When Sakhalin Koreans filed a lawsuit against the Japanese government in 2009, the Japanese government made it clear that the issue was resolved by a billing agreement.

It's no different from the comfort women, compulsory victims, etc.

In 2005, the Public-Private Joint Committee also judged that the personal claims of the comfort women, the bomb victims, and the Sakhalin Koreans were not destroyed.

Only our Foreign Ministry disagrees.

About half of the people died in Sakhalin-inhabited villages where more than 1,000 people lived.

[Yang Yoon-hee / Sakhalin Korean senior citizens in Ansan hometown: 18 ~ 20 people have passed away this year. 30-35 people are dying in our village a year. There are still a few people left before I want you to reimburse me when I live.]

In a lawsuit filed by comfort women victims in 2011, the constitution decided that it was a violation of the basic rights of the victims that the government did not try to resolve it even though there was a dispute between the two countries.

(Video coverage: Kim Myung-gu, Video editing: Kim Ho-jin)