The 4.3 Peace park in Jeju island, South Korea, honors victims of a 1948 massacre. File Photo by Jeon Heon-kyun/EPA-EFE
July 27 (UPI) -- South Korean lawmakers across party lines are supporting a new bill that could compensate all victims of a civilian massacre on Jeju Island.
A total of 133 lawmakers say survivors of an anti-communist crackdown that took place in 1948 should receive $109,000 each for being wrongfully charged by military authorities and for having their rights violated, News 1 reported Monday.
The special law's primary objectives are to amend clauses, request additional fact-finding investigations and pursue compensation for victims.
The bill would also cancel charges against civilians who were imprisoned after being sentenced by military courts illegally, said Oh Young-hoon, a lawmaker with Seoul's ruling Democratic Party.
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If the bill is passed, financial compensation would be awarded to the victims or surviving family, according to the report.
There are 14,532 officially recognized victims of the Jeju Massacre in South Korea. Of that number, 3,357 have no surviving family and would not count in the reparations. Total state compensation would be greater than $1 billion.
The bill is being supported in Seoul less than a year after some of the victims, 18 plaintiffs, were awarded more than $4 million in compensation for wrongful imprisonment following the Jeju massacre.
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Other activists were seeking reparations from the North Korean government on Monday.
Lawyers for human rights and unification on the Korean Peninsula said families of victims abducted during the 1950-53 Korean War are to file a second lawsuit against North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Yonhap reported.
Eight families, representing eight victims, are to be named the plaintiffs in the suit, the South Korean attorneys said.
The suit seeks about $25,000 in reparations per victim.
Last month the lawyers filed a first lawsuit against Kim on behalf of 10 victims of North Korea wartime abductions.
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