The Chosun Daily Article:
”Former TRC Chair Condemns Commercialization of Past Issues Resolution

Park Sun-young warns politicization risks delaying justice as revised act expands investigation scope.”

Original Chosun Daily article published December 2nd, 2025.
ChatGPT translation posted To Paperslip on December 3rd, 2025 at 12:15 am PST / 3:15 am EST.

+

Paperslip Note:
Please bear in mind the context of this article. The author is TRC 2 Chairwoman Park Sun-young, who is the highly conservative former appointee of impeached former S. Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol. And the newspaper Chosun is a conservative, hard right paper.

Additional context:
We currently do not know of any of the 56 Korean Adoptees who received TRC 2 judgements in their cases who are pursuing civil lawsuits in Korea, whether through the Korean law firm Minbyun or through other Korean law firms. We do know and agree that the cost for pursuing such civil lawsuits in Korea is quite high. However, we also think it’s important to understand the politics of the author of the article when reading.

For Korean Adoptee participants in the presumably forthcoming TRC 3, we think it is important to understand that only those who receive judgments in their cases are even eligible to pursue civil lawsuits in S. Korea.

Still, we believe that the political purpose of this article was written to undermine the spirit and goals of the TRC 2 investigation by the conservative former TRC 2 Chairwoman Park Sun-young, who has been openly criticized in S. Korea in her former role.

+

Below: ChatGPT Translation of original Chosun Daily article:

“When truth becomes “business” and justice becomes “interests,” the reckoning with the past stops

Truth and Reconciliation Commission, 2nd term concluded
Interview with former Chair Park Sun-young

Gu Amo, Staff Reporter
Published Dec. 2, 2025, 00:43
Updated Dec. 2, 2025, 06:39

“Even South Africa, which suffered 300 years of colonial rule, resolved its historical issues within three years. But in Korea, it has taken more than 20 years. Reckoning with the past is about realizing justice—it's not a money-making tool for a handful of left-wing lawyers.”

In an interview with our newspaper, Park Sun-young, former Chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), said that “dealing with Korea’s past has been commercialized,” adding, “justice was turned into vested interests long ago.” Park served as the final chairperson of the 2nd TRC, launched in December 2020, and stepped down on November 26 when the commission’s mandate ended. Regarding the Democratic Party’s push to amend the Past Affairs Act to launch a “3rd TRC,” she warned that “the more politicians cling to past affairs, the more delayed the search for truth becomes—and victims could once again be dragged into rounds of lawsuits.” The interview took place on November 25, one day before her retirement, in her office at the TRC in Jung District, Seoul.

Park said, “The absurd situation in which historical issues are used as a business tool by left-leaning activist circles continues,” adding that so-called “past-affairs specialist lawyers and law firms are making a business out of the past.” Previously, Lawyer Kim ○○, a former member of MINBYUN (Lawyers for a Democratic Society), was convicted in 2022 for accepting 2.47 billion won in fees by taking on more than 40 state-compensation lawsuits filed by victims of cases he had investigated while working at the TRC.

Park argued, “Such things happen because even when a state body like the TRC recognizes victims of state violence, the current Past Affairs Act provides no compensation mechanism. A TRC decision alone does not entitle victims to compensation.” Victims must file separate civil suits against the state to receive compensation. According to Park, this process often allows certain politically aligned lawyers and law firms to take on cases and profit from them, creating a recurring system of abuse.

She continued, “I have long insisted that the National Assembly create a special law under which a higher-level body, such as the Prime Minister’s Office, would review cases and determine compensation.” But “the National Assembly hasn’t even looked at it,” she said. “Victims are still paying attorneys 15–30% of their compensation, and this structure—where lawyers take a cut—must not be allowed to continue.”

Park also criticized the Past Affairs Act amendment—passed on November 27 by the National Assembly’s Public Administration and Security Committee—which would establish a “3rd TRC,” saying, “If the bill passes as is, past-affairs issues will become even more politicized.” The amendment extends the TRC’s investigation period from a maximum of four to five years and increases the number of commissioners from nine to thirteen. “With the increase in commissioners, two-thirds will effectively be figures aligned with the governing bloc when you add up the appointment quotas of the president, the National Assembly speaker, and non-negotiating parties,” she said. She also criticized expanding the scope of investigations from “the authoritarian period (before February 1993)” to “before the establishment of the NHRCK (November 2001),” arguing that “they are extending the period into the early Kim Dae-jung administration to rewrite history as they please.”

The 2nd TRC, launched at the end of 2020, received a total of 22,252 petitions for truth-finding by November 2025 and closed 18,117 of them. Park cited as a major achievement the commission’s decision defining as “human-rights violations” the cases of 367 adoptees sent from Korea to 11 countries—including the U.S., Denmark, and Sweden—between the 1960s and 1990s. The investigation showed that children labeled as “missing” were falsely recorded as “orphans” and sent abroad. “I will never forget an overseas adoptee kneeling and crying, pleading with us to resolve the issue,” Park said.

Truth and Reconciliation Commission

An independent investigative body established to uncover the truth behind anti-Japanese independence activities, civilian massacres around the time of the Korean War, and human-rights violations committed during authoritarian rule. It was launched in 2005 under the Roh Moo-hyun administration and completed its work in 2010. Former lawmaker Park Sun-young—founder of the North Korea human-rights group Mulmangcho Foundation—served as the final chair of the 2nd Commission, which concluded its work on November 26.”