SBS News:
”Korean Government to Withdraw Appeal and Issue Official Apology for 'Seongam Academy’ Case”.

Posted to Paperslip on August 1st, 2025.
Original Korean article published July 30th, 2025.
Thanks to a Paperslip Contributor for the link.
Translation via ChatGPT.
Bolds and red highlighting ours.

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Paperslip Note:

Trigger Warning:

Please note that the notorious Seongam Academy, a former concentration camp in S. Korea for “vagrant” boys, has an historical connection to KSS (Korea Social Service) Founder, Kun Chil Paik Alternately: Baek Geun-chil / Paik, Kun Chil / 백근칠칠.

KSS Founder Kun Chil Paik was Vice President and later President of Seongam Academy in the late 1940s, prior to his study at The University of Minnesota and in the US and Oxford University in the UK in the 1950s, and his subsequent founding of KSS in Korea in 1964. Please see KSS History for more information.

It’s important that S. Korea address it’s past grievances. The basis of Korea’s TRC (Truth and Reconciliation Commission) was the investigation into the major concentration camps of Korea, including Seongam Academy. Adoptees owe a debt of gratitude to these concentration camp survivors for bringing their issues to light.

Click here to find related articles about Seongam Academy on Paperslip.

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“SBS Subscription
[Exclusive] Government to Withdraw Appeal and Issue Official Apology for 'Seongam Academy' Case
Posted: July 30, 2025, 9:21 PM | Updated: July 30, 2025, 10:49 PM
By Kang Min-woo, Reporter

Anchor:

The so-called "Seongam Academy" case, in which over 4,000 children were forcibly admitted to a facility on an island and subjected to forced labor, violence, and abuse. For years, victims have expressed frustration as their lawsuits against the state and local government for damages dragged on. Now, the Lee Jae-myung administration is pushing to withdraw the government’s appeal and issue an official apology.

Exclusive report by Kang Min-woo.

Reporter:

Seongam School was established in 1941 on Seongam Island in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province, during the Japanese colonial period.

Under the pretense of managing "vagrants," the state forcibly institutionalized and abused 4,691 children and adolescents at the facility until 1982. This was revealed through media investigations and the findings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

The school was known as a "juvenile version of the Samcheong Education Corps."

[Kim Seong-gon / Seongam School Victim (in 2019):
If you didn’t obey, they would beat you with things like pickaxe handles. We’d be covered in bruises and have head injuries…]

Multiple rounds of remains excavation have also taken place.

[Bae Myeong-gi / Seongam School Victim (in 2022):
I buried three or four. Some kids were swept in by the sea while trying to escape.]

In 2022, all Seongam School inmates were officially recognized as victims of human rights violations, but the state has yet to issue an apology.

A plan for the Minister of the Interior and Safety to issue an apology was pursued on December 4 last year, but it was derailed the day before due to the outbreak of the December 3 Martial Law Incident.

What continues to cause pain for the victims is the ongoing lawsuit seeking damages from the state and local governments, which has lasted several years.

In June, the appellate court ruled that tens of billions of won in compensation should be paid to the victims of Seongam Academy. However, the Ministry of Health and Welfare and Gyeonggi Province appealed the ruling to the Supreme Court.

The dispute centers on who is responsible for the compensation: the Ministry of Health and Welfare claims that Gyeonggi Province operated the facility, while Gyeonggi Province argues it was a delegated national duty.

More than 10 victims have died during the course of the lawsuit.

Now, under the new Office of Public Listening and Integration established by the current administration, efforts are underway to withdraw the appeal and issue an official government apology.

A presidential office official stated, "We also plan to push legal and institutional reforms to prevent such injustices from happening again."

President Lee Jae-myung had previously apologized for the Seongam Academy case during his tenure as Gyeonggi Governor. The current administration is considering having President Lee issue a formal apology again.

(Video by: Lee Byung-joo, Kim Nam-sung | Video Editing: Nam Il | Design: Lee Jun-ho)
Reporter: Kang Min-woo | Email: khanporter@sbs.co.kr”