'State should immediately buy unsellable assets and return proceeds to independence fighters' descendants'

Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Lee Gwang-jae [Provided by lawmaker's office]
Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Lee Gwang-jae [Provided by lawmaker's office]

More than 70 percent of land confiscated from pro-Japanese collaborators and transferred to state ownership remains unsold and neglected, a lawmaker said Wednesday.

According to data submitted to Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Lee Gwang-jae (Hanam-gap, Gyeonggi Province; chair of the National Assembly's Budget and Accounts Committee) by the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs, only 27.4 percent — about 2.41 million square meters across 1,600 parcels — of the roughly 8.74 million square meters of collaborator land designated for state ownership has been sold.

The remaining 6.34 million square meters, representing 72.6 percent of the total, remain unsold — an area roughly 2.2 times the size of Yeouido. The book value of the unsold land exceeds 40 billion won ($28.9 million).

Of the unsold remainder, about 5.31 million square meters are classified as restricted from sale. Within that category, roughly 4.26 million square meters are legally barred from being sold, including land designated as parks (about 2.08 million square meters), roads (about 145,200 square meters), rivers (about 141,900 square meters) and national forests (about 957,000 square meters).

An additional 1.06 million square meters are tied up in complicated ownership arrangements — occupied by buildings or graves, or encumbered by shared title interests.

Lee said the prolonged delays in selling the land are undermining the financial health of a fund dedicated to honoring independence movement figures. Under the Act on the Honorable Treatment of Persons of Distinguished Services to Independence, proceeds from the sale of collaborator assets are required to flow into the "Patriotic Martyrs and Independence Activists Project Fund."

As sales have dwindled, revenue flowing into the fund has fallen sharply — from 9.1 billion won in 2016 to 900 million won in 2023, 1.8 billion won in 2024, 1.2 billion won in 2025, and just 100 million won in the first half of this year. Meanwhile, annual program expenditures from the fund have exceeded 100 billion won each year, reaching 107.9 billion won in 2025 alone. The government has been propping up the fund with general account transfers of around 92 billion won annually.

"The government is engaged in desk-bound administration, indefinitely holding onto collaborator land tied up as roads, rivers and parks," Lee said. "Assets that cannot be sold must be immediately purchased and managed using state funds — through the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, the Korea Forest Service, and local governments."


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