Daegu MBC: “TRC3 Decides to Begin Investigations into 932 Cases…” (Including cases of Overseas Adoption).
Daegu MBC Article:
“Truth and Reconciliation Commission Decides to Begin Investigations into 932 Cases, Including Civilian Deaths in Pohang and Mungyeong and Human Rights Violations Against Korean Residents of Japan.”
Including “119 cases involving human rights violations at group detention facilities and in overseas adoption processes.”
Original Korean article posted on October 7th, 2026.
ChatGPT translation posted to Paperslip on October 7th, 2026.
Please see original Korean article for photos.
BOLDS and blue highlighting ours.
We have added some information in parentheses ( ) for clarity.
Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC 3) Decides to Begin Investigations into 932 Cases, Including Civilian Deaths in Pohang and Mungyeong and Human Rights Violations Against Korean Residents of Japan
Reporter Do Geon-hyeop — Published October 7, 2026, 17:16:22; Updated October 7, 2026, 17:16:45
“The Third Truth and Reconciliation Commission held its sixth plenary meeting and decided to launch truth-finding investigations into a total of 932 cases, including incidents involving civilian deaths at the hands of the military and police in areas such as Pohang, Yeongdeok, and Mungyeong in North Gyeongsang Province.
The cases newly approved for investigation consist of 41 cases involving anti-Japanese independence movements and civilian deaths before and around the Korean War; 772 cases involving human rights violations from the period following liberation through the establishment of the National Human Rights Commission; and 119 cases involving human rights violations at group detention facilities and in overseas adoption processes.
Among the cases related to Daegu and North Gyeongsang Province are incidents in Pohang and Yeongdeok in which civilians, including members of the National Guidance Alliance (Gukmin Bodo Yeonmaeng), were taken into custody by the military and police around the time of the Korean War and killed, including by being drowned.
Also included is the case of civilian deaths in Mungyeong, North Gyeongsang Province, in which residents were collectively killed by the South Korean military in 1949 on suspicion that they might have assisted communist guerrillas.
The commission's second ex officio investigation since the launch of the Third Commission—following its investigation into the cases of fishermen who were abducted to North Korea and later returned—will, for the first time, include 33 cases involving human rights violations against Korean residents of Japan. These individuals had entered South Korea for purposes such as studying or conducting business, but were falsely accused of being spies and subsequently imprisoned.
The commission explained that it had confirmed that the individuals in these cases were illegally detained for periods ranging from a minimum of three days to a maximum of 143 days without warrants, and that these circumstances constitute grounds for a retrial under the Criminal Procedure Act.
Other cases to be investigated include the suppression of the Cheonggye Garment Workers' Union in the 1980s, when the union was shut down during the Chun Doo-hwan administration; cases involving victims of forced detention at facilities such as the Seoul Municipal Rehabilitation Center and Oryu Children's Home; and cases involving civilian deaths connected to the U.S. military.
Song Sang-gyo, chairman of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, said that the commission would do its utmost to uncover the truth about state violence committed by past authoritarian governments and to restore the honor of local victims and those who suffered unjustly.
Applications requesting a truth-finding investigation can be submitted by victims and their surviving family members through the Truth and Reconciliation Commission or the civil-service offices of local governments until February 25, 2028.
The image above was created using generative AI.
Tags: Truth and Reconciliation Commission; settlement of past history; ex officio investigation; human rights violations against Korean residents of Japan; Cheonggye Garment Workers' Union; civilian deaths in Pohang and Yeongdeok; civilian deaths in Mungyeong.”