The Kookje Daily News: “Brothers Home and Chilseongwon: TRC 3 Decides to Launch Investigations into Human Rights Violation Cases.”

Written By Paperslip Adoptee

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Please note that this page has several ChatGPT English translations of articles from “Kookje Shinmum / The Kookje Daily”, which provide incredibly important information about three social welfare institutions in Busan, S. Korea where abuse of both children and adults was widespread. According to these articles, all three social welfare institutions were part of a corrupt social welfare system in Busan. This corruption has spanned decades. Any of these facilities could have been part of the pipeline for overseas adoption. There are a few known / documented cases in the press of children being adopted overseas who were originally at Brothers Home. There are likely FAR more cases like these than will ever be known.

We think it is inevitable that many children who originated at Brothers Home (and other abusive social welfare facilities throughout S. Korea) were funneled for overseas adoption through KSS (Korea Social Service) as well as through the other major Korean Adoption Agencies. Busan was a major source of children for Overseas Adoption, along with Seoul, Daegu, Gwangju, and other major cities.

The chronology of these three social welfare facilities reported by Kookje Shinmun is:

영화숙·재생원 → 칠성원 (1971–1975) → 형제복지원 (1975–1987)

Yeonghwa-suk·Jaesaengwon → Chilseongwon (1971–1975) → Brothers Welfare Center (1975–1987)

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Kookje Shinmun / The Kookje Daily News Article:
“Brothers Welfare Center (Brothers Home) and Chilseongwon: 3rd Truth and Reconciliation Commission Decides to Launch Investigations into Human Rights Violation Cases”

Original Korean article published on September 8th, 2026.
ChatGPT English Translation posted to Paperslip on September 11th, 2026.
Please see original Korean article for photographs.
BOLDS and blue highlighting ours.

“Brothers Welfare Center (Brothers Home) and Chilseongwon”: 3rd Truth and Reconciliation Commission Decides to Launch Investigations into Human Rights Violation Cases

152 applications filed concerning Brothers Welfare Center; 11 concerning Chilseongwon

Investigations also launched into civilian massacres committed by the military and police before and after the Korean War

Reporter: Cho Seong-woo, holycow@kookje.co.kr | Published: September 8, 2026, 9:54:15 p.m.

Caption: Brothers Welfare Center. International Newspaper DB (See original Korean article for photographs).

“The 3rd Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC 3) has decided to launch investigations into past human rights violation cases, including those involving Brothers Welfare Center and Chilseongwon. It will also investigate cases that occurred in Busan among the civilian massacres carried out by the military and police before and after the Korean War.

At 2 p.m. on September 8, the 3rd Truth and Reconciliation Commission held its 4th plenary meeting at the commission’s headquarters in Jung-gu, Seoul. It decided to launch its first ex officio investigation of the 3rd commission and its third round of investigations. The human rights violation case involving fishermen who were abducted to North Korea and later returned to South Korea was selected as the 3rd commission’s first ex officio investigation. The commission also decided to begin truth-finding investigations into 1,041 cases involving a total of 118 incidents.

In particular, the commission decided that day to launch investigations into two cases involving Brothers Welfare Center, a mass detention facility in Busan, and one case involving Chilseongwon. A total of 152 applications, involving 152 individuals, have been filed concerning Brothers Welfare Center, while 11 applications, involving 11 individuals, have been filed concerning Chilseongwon.

Brothers Welfare Center was the site of a mass detention system in which people designated as “vagrants” were forcibly confined as a result of the government’s policy of cracking down on vagrancy and forcibly placing people in institutions. This occurred from July 2, 1960, to August 20, 1992. During their confinement, detainees were subjected to serious human rights violations, including forced labor, assault, death, and disappearance.

Chilseongwon was likewise the site of a case in which people forcibly detained in Busan between 1970 and 1975 were subjected to human rights violations, including forced labor, beatings, and other forms of cruel treatment. The TRC determined that investigations were necessary after confirming that individuals had in fact been detained at each of the two mass detention facilities and obtaining specific, corroborating testimony concerning their experiences.

In addition, the commission decided to launch investigations into two cases for which applications had been filed concerning civilian massacres that occurred in Busan and were allegedly carried out by the military and police before and after the Korean War.

Nationwide, a total of 655 cases involving collective civilian deaths before and after the Korean War were approved for investigation in this round. These include 33 cases in Jinju, Gyeongsangnam-do; 7 in Geoje, Tongyeong, and Sacheon; 5 in Sancheong; 11 in Hadong; 1 in Haman; 4 in Hamyang; 7 in Gimhae; 2 in Changwon; and 10 in Ulsan.”

© International Newspaper (www.kookje.co.kr).

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I asked ChatGPT:
What is known about 칠성원 (Chilseongwon)?

I asked ChatGPT on September 11th, 2026:

What is known about 칠성원 (Chilseongwon)?

ChatGPT said:

칠성원 (Chilseongwon) was a state-contracted residential institution in Busan, South Korea, that operated roughly from 1971 to 1975. It is now receiving renewed attention because South Korea's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (진실·화해를위한과거사정리위원회) is investigating allegations of human-rights abuses there.

The historical record is considerably thinner than that for Brothers Welfare Center (형제복지원), but the material that has emerged is quite disturbing.

Its place in the Busan institutional system:

칠성원 (Chilseongwon) was not simply an independent orphanage. It became Busan's officially contracted facility for people classified as “vagrants” (부랑인) after the city ended its contract with 영화숙·재생원 in 1971.

The chronology reported by Kookje Shinmun is:

영화숙·재생원 → 칠성원 (1971–1975) → 형제복지원 (1975–1987)

Yeonghwa-suk·Jaesaengwon → Chilseongwon (1971–1975) → Brothers Welfare Center (1975–1987)

The important point is that this was not necessarily three unrelated institutions. A Busan municipal ordinance and contracting system continued to provide the governmental framework for confining people classified as vagrants, even as the particular institution changed. The ordinance underlying this system was reportedly not abolished until 1990.

Source:
https://www.kookje.co.kr/news2011/asp/newsbody.asp?code=0300&key=20241016.22006003885

Where was it?

칠성원 was located in Jangjeon-dong, Geumjeong-gu, Busan (부산 금정구 장전동).

It had originally developed from 애광양로원 (Aegwang Nursing Home), established in 1951 by Bae Sam-sul, and later expanded to include 애광보육원 (Aegwang Children's Home). When it became the city's contracted vagrant facility in September 1971, it consequently had both elderly and child residents.

Kookje Shinmun reports that it housed approximately 200–300 people, although the exact population over the entire period remains something that needs further investigation.

Source:
https://www.kookje.co.kr/news2011/asp/newsbody.asp?code=0300&key=20221212.22006003238

Who was confined there?

This is one of the particularly important aspects of the story.

Although 칠성원's (Chilseongwon’s) ostensible purpose was the confinement/protection of adult “vagrants,” children were also held there.

One survivor interviewed by Kookje Shinmun, identified as Yang (using a pseudonym), described being taken there when he was in second or third grade of elementary school. He said he was living with his mother and younger sibling and was neither an orphan nor a “vagrant.”

He recalled being taken by a government official from Nampo-dong, given bread and told to wait, and then transported to the facility.

Source:
https://www.kookje.co.kr/news2011/asp/newsbody.asp?code=0300&key=20221212.22006003239

That testimony is important because it raises the question of how broadly the category of “vagrant” was being applied to children and ordinary families, and what legal authority officials believed they had to remove children from their homes.

What abuses have been reported?

The survivor testimony published in 2024 is particularly graphic.

A former child resident, identified as Park, recalled:

  • being picked up near Haeundae Station while still in elementary school;

  • being taken to 칠성원 despite having a family;

  • children and young adults being held together;

  • being forced to perform labor making decorative flowers behind toothpicks;

  • being beaten when they failed to meet production quotas;

  • being forced to sleep completely naked and tightly pressed together with other residents;

  • an incident in which the director allegedly threw a child into a pond on the grounds as punishment.

These are survivor allegations/testimony, rather than findings that have yet been conclusively established by the current commission.

Source:
https://www.kookje.co.kr/news2011/asp/newsbody.asp?code=0300&key=20241016.22006003885

There were apparently many escapes

According to Kookje Shinmun, the facility had significant problems retaining residents. People reportedly escaped because of hunger and the conditions inside, with the newspaper reporting that the number of people escaping could reach around 50 per month.

That figure should be treated cautiously because it comes from historical reporting rather than a completed Truth and Reconciliation Commission finding.

Source:
https://www.kookje.co.kr/news2011/asp/newsbody.asp?code=0300&key=20221212.22006003238

The connection with 영화숙·재생원 is particularly important

The evidence suggests that children moved between these institutions.

During its investigation of 영화숙·재생원, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission identified children who had subsequently been transferred to 칠성원, as well as to 형제육아원, the predecessor of Brothers Welfare Center.

Source:
https://www.kookje.co.kr/news2011/asp/newsbody.asp?code=2500&key=20230823.99099007185

This makes 칠성원 important for understanding the network of institutions, rather than just one facility.

A 2022 investigation by Kookje Shinmun described a broader network among Busan's welfare institutions in which children could be transferred between facilities and institutions could share money, personnel/management practices, and other resources. The newspaper's argument was that the historical problem should therefore be viewed as a system of institutional confinement, rather than solely as the wrongdoing of Brothers Welfare Center.

Source:
https://www.kookje.co.kr/news2011/asp/newsbody.asp?code=0300&key=20221212.22006003239

What happened to 칠성원?

In July 1975, 칠성원 (Chilseongwon) told Busan that it wanted to terminate its contract for operating the vagrant facility. This coincided with the emergence of 형제복지원 (Brother’s Home) as the successor institution.

The institution itself did not simply disappear. In 1985, it changed its name to 애광원 (Aegwangwon) and subsequently concentrated on elderly-care and welfare services. The organization's later history is therefore distinct from the historical 칠성원 (Chilseongwon) facility.

Source:
https://www.kookje.co.kr/news2011/asp/newsbody.asp?code=0300&key=20221212.22006003238

What is the Truth and Reconciliation Commission doing now?

This is where the story becomes especially significant.

As of May 2024, only six 칠성원 (Chilseongwon) cases had been filed with the commission. The relatively small number of surviving applications is one reason the historical record remains sparse.

However, the commission found records showing that children from 칠성원 (Chilseongwon) had subsequently been transferred to another facility, 애광보육원 (Aegwang Orphanage), and intended to use those records to locate additional survivors and establish what actually happened.

Source:
https://www.kookje.co.kr/news2011/asp/newsbody.asp?code=0300&key=20241016.22006003885

And in September 2026, the third commission formally accepted 11 new 칠성원 cases for investigation. That means there is now an active official investigation rather than merely historical journalism and survivor testimony.

The larger historical significance

I think the most important way to understand 칠성원 (Chilseongwon) is not as a smaller version of 형제복지원 (Brothers Home).

It may instead be evidence of a continuum of government-supported institutional confinement in Busan:

영화숙·재생원 → 칠성원 (1971–1975) → 형제복지원 (1975–1987)

Yeonghwa-suk·Jaesaengwon → Chilseongwon (1971–1975) → Brothers Welfare Center (1975–1987)

The same municipal framework allowed different private welfare organizations to operate facilities with governmental authority over people classified as “vagrants.” The evidence emerging from 칠성원 (Chilseongwon) also suggests that children who had families could become caught up in this system, and that transfers between facilities were possible.

That makes the current investigation potentially very important. It could help establish who authorized the removals, what legal basis officials claimed, how Busan City supervised the facilities, how residents were transferred, whether forced labor was systematic, and how much the government knew about conditions inside.

There is still a major evidentiary gap, however. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission has not yet produced a final comprehensive finding on 칠성원 comparable to its completed findings concerning 영화숙·재생원 or 형제복지원. So survivor testimony, archival evidence, and the commission's eventual conclusions should be kept distinct.

Primary Korean sources

For further reading, these are particularly useful:

One thing I would be particularly interested in investigating next is the archival trail for 칠성원—the 부산시 위탁계약 (Busan City contract), the relevant 1968 ordinance, resident registers, transfer records, and records from 애광보육원. Those documents could potentially tell us much more about who was actually taken to 칠성원 and under whose authority.

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Below are some ChatGPT English translations of four older Kookje articles concerning 칠성원 (Chilseongwon):

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Kookje Article:
[Testimonies of Human Rights Abuses at Facilities for Vagrants] <5> Chilseongwon and Deokseongwon, the Facilities for Vagrant Children That Linked Yeonghwasuk and Brothers Welfare Center

*PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS IS AN OLDER ARTICLE:
*Original Korean article published on December 11th, 2022.
ChatGPT English Translation posted to Paperslip on September 11th, 2026.
Please see original Korean article for photographs.
BOLDS and blue highlighting ours.

“Facilities formed their own network… They exchanged children, while debts and financial relationships became intertwined”

Kim Seong-ryong srkim@kookje.co.kr
Reporters Shin Sim-beom and Jeong Ji-yoon | Published: 2022-12-11 19:46:44 | Page 6

“- Yang Seong-ho was confined at Chilseongwon for years

  • Taken away by a government official and forced into labor

  • Escaped after his mother tracked him down

- Ahn Jong-hwan was admitted to Brothers Welfare Center

  • Separated from his mother after being assigned to the adult platoon

  • Transferred to the children's facility Deokseongwon

  • “I was also defrauded of 300 million won by the director's wife

  • This was a problem throughout Busan's social welfare sector”

Busan was not only a gathering place for refugees during the Korean War; as a port city, it was also a place where relief supplies from overseas poured in. As a result, children's welfare facilities sprang up everywhere, and there were quite a few places that colluded with public officials to embezzle relief supplies and commit human rights abuses. A representative example was “Yeonghwasuk·Jaesaengwon,” Busan's first officially recognized facility for housing vagrants. Although it was a private organization, it was granted authority by the Busan city government to crack down on and house vagrants, and received city subsidies according to the number of people it housed. This explains why the “roundup” of vagrants was already widespread in Busan long before the central government issued guidelines for controlling vagrants, typified by “Ministry of Home Affairs Directive No. 410” in 1975. War orphans existed throughout the country, but in Busan, systematic abuses backed by state power had taken root early on.

The dark history of Busan's social welfare system continued after Yeonghwasuk through Chilseongwon and Brothers Welfare Center. Human rights violations, including forced labor and violence, were widespread at children's facilities other than these institutions as well. The facilities had formed their own network. They not only exchanged children but also frequently lent each other money and shared management know-how. This is why the perpetrators of the mass human rights abuses of the past should not be viewed as belonging to a single facility such as Brothers Welfare Center, but rather as part of Busan's social welfare system itself.

Caption: The Siloam House, a residential care facility for people with disabilities, undergoing expansion work after Park In-geun, who caused controversy over the Brothers Welfare Center incident in 1987, returned as CEO of “Job's Village,” the facility's renamed successor. International Newspaper DB (Please see original Korean article for photos).

■ Taken to Chilseongwon by a Government Official

Yang Seong-ho (pseudonym, 58) was taken by a government official from Nampo-dong in Jung-gu and brought to Chilseongwon. He was around the second or third grade of elementary school. He was neither an orphan nor a vagrant child. He had been living in Bosu-dong, Seo-gu, with his mother and sibling. Even now, he does not know why the official took him away.

“He bought me a piece of bread and took me to the Busanjin District Office, saying, ‘Wait here for a little while.’ He said he had something to take care of. After I waited while eating the bread, he took me to a ㄱ-shaped building in the mountains,” he said.

Chilseongwon was located in Jangjeon-dong, Geumjeong-gu, Busan. Following Yeonghwasuk·Jaesaengwon, it was a facility that officially housed vagrants in Busan. Chilseongwon operated both an old people's home and an orphanage. Perhaps for this reason, although its main function was to house vagrants, it appears that there were also quite a few children admitted there, like Yang.

Yang had to endure harassment from Chilseongwon employees and older boys.

“I was young, so I thought about my mother a lot. I went outside crying, saying, ‘I have to go to my mom,’ but they brought me back, saying I had run away. They slapped me in the dining hall and kicked me. The older boys also beat me a lot. They would make me stand against a wall, intimidate me, and then beat me.”

The day's routine began with forced labor. Yang and the other young inmates had to spend all day attaching flower-shaped decorations to the tips of toothpicks. He said they glued enormous quantities of flower decorations on with paste, to the point that their fingers became raw.

“It seemed like the toothpicks we made were being exported. They were stored in boxes with English writing on them. If any of the toothpicks were defective, we had to listen to harsh scolding,” Yang recalled.

The most painful thing was the hunger. They were given three meals a day, but at best they consisted of something like rice gruel. Yang was so hungry that he even ate dirt and pine needles. At the time, Chilseongwon was actually unable to provide proper meals because it could not cope with the sudden expansion of its operations. Quite a few children ran away because they could no longer endure the hunger.

Yang was able to escape Chilseongwon thanks to his mother, who eventually tracked him down. It was around 1975. He said:

“A person my mother knew worked at the district office. That person came to inspect Chilseongwon, saw me, and told my mother where I was. People who haven't experienced it themselves don't know how important human rights are. You are forced to live a depressed life after having all your rights to live freely taken away. Even if it is only to ease the resentment, a full investigation into the truth is desperately needed.”

■ Lost His Mother at Brothers Welfare Center, Lost Himself at Deokseongwon

Ahn Jong-hwan

Ahn Jong-hwan (46) was admitted to Brothers Welfare Center while being held in his mother's arms at Busan Station. Other than vaguely remembering being driven through an iron gate in a truck with several other people around sunset, he remembers little. This is the last scene in which Ahn remembers his mother.

After admission, Ahn was assigned to the children's platoon and his mother to the adult platoon. From that day on, Ahn never saw his mother again. When he became an adult and went looking for Brothers Welfare Center, it had already disappeared.

In 1987, he was transferred from Brothers Welfare Center to “Deokseongwon.” It was a children's facility located in Jung-dong, Dongnae-gu (now Haeundae-gu). Deokseongwon had some kind of relationship with Brothers Welfare Center. Brothers Welfare Center had established debt relationships with facilities across the country. It would divert assets belonging to its foundation and lend them to other facilities. The director of Deokseongwon had also borrowed 20 million won from Park In-geun, the director of Brothers Welfare Center.

At the time, Ahn's overriding goal was simply “to sleep without being beaten.”

“Just like at Brothers Welfare Center, one of the residents was made the room leader. Residents beat other residents, and whenever we came back from school, they always made us line up. If we were late, we were beaten with clubs. After school, we also had to carry rocks and dirt every day. As I understand it, we were helping with construction work for Busan City. We were given exactly one hour in the evening to study. Even now, I'm filled with anger over why I had to suffer these things,” Ahn said bitterly.

After leaving Deokseongwon as an adult, Ahn bought a refrigerated box truck with money he had saved while working during his high-school employment period. He started selling fish, and business went well. He worked diligently because he wanted to become self-made, like the late Chung Ju-yung, former chairman of Hyundai Group.

Then, around 1997, he received a call from the wife of the director of Deokseongwon. She said she needed money to pay for a lawsuit related to the foundation. Thinking of her as someone like a mother, Ahn gave her 5 million won a month, for a total of 300 million won over five years. The director's wife even had the promise notarized, saying she would give the money back “when you get married.”

But the director's wife never repaid the money. When Ahn was around 25 and had a woman he planned to marry, he asked her to return the money he had entrusted to her. But she ultimately never gave it back.

Ahn said:

“I even thought about buying a knife and going after the platoon leaders at Brothers Welfare Center or the director's family at Deokseongwon. Because of them, I have had to live my entire life with this sense of injustice. This cannot be called a problem belonging to just one facility. A practice that destroyed people's dignity and drained them emotionally had taken root throughout the social welfare sector. It is important that the investigation into the truth encompass all victims who were housed in these facilities.”’

ⓒInternational Newspaper (www.kookje.co.kr)

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Kookje Article:
“Chilseongwon continued as a dementia care facility after its founder stepped down… Brothers Welfare Center survived under different names until 2016”

*PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS IS AN OLDER ARTICLE:
*Original Korean article published on December 11th, 2022.
ChatGPT English Translation posted to Paperslip on September 11th, 2026.
Please see original Korean article for photographs.
BOLDS and blue highlighting ours.

“Chilseongwon continued as a dementia care facility after its founder stepped down… Brothers Welfare Center survived under different names until 2016”

“The Children Who Disappeared, the Facilities That Survived”

Shin Sim-beom mets@kookje.co.kr
Reporter Jeong Ji-yoon | Published: 2022-12-11 19:43:30 | Page 6

“Busan's first official facility for vagrants, “Yeonghwasuk·Jaesaengwon,” was granted delegated authority by the Busan city government in 1968 under the “Busan City Ordinance on the Establishment of Jaesaengwon.” Even after Yeonghwasuk·Jaesaengwon, this ordinance granted public authority to Chilseongwon and Brothers Welfare Center, allowing human rights abuses to continue under the pretext of “rounding up vagrants.”

Chilseongwon (1971–1975) took over from Yeonghwasuk in housing vagrants. After terminating its contract with Yeonghwasuk in 1971, the Busan city government designated Chilseongwon as the new entrusted operator in September of that year, continuing its policy of housing and isolating vagrants. From then until July 1975, Chilseongwon housed 200 to 300 adult vagrants at a time. Some of them were children as well.

The predecessor of Chilseongwon was Aegwang Nursing Home, established in 1951 by representative Bae Sam-sul. In 1962, Aegwang Children's Home was established, expanding the size of the organization. After Chilseongwon subsequently became the city's official facility for housing vagrants, it managed up to 300 residents. However, its previous experience operating a nursing home and children's home proved inadequate for the task. As many as 50 people a month escaped the facility because of hunger and other hardships.

Eventually, in July 1975, Chilseongwon notified the Busan city government that it intended to terminate its contract. In 1985, it changed its name to Aegwangwon, and today it focuses on operating specialized care facilities for elderly people with dementia and other senior welfare facilities. The founder's family stepped down from the organization after becoming embroiled in an embezzlement scandal in the early 2000s.

The facility that took over from Chilseongwon as a place for housing vagrants was Brothers Welfare Center (1975–1987). Brothers Welfare Center signed an entrusted-operation contract with the city on July 25, 1975, and for 12 years, until June 1987, committed human rights abuses—including forced labor, beatings, sexual assault, and secret burials—with the state's assistance and acquiescence. As of last August, the officially confirmed number of deaths alone had reached 657.

Even after the conditions at Brothers Welfare Center were exposed in 1987, it continued operating under different names until relatively recently. It was transformed into “Jaeyugwon” (1988), “Job's Village” (1991), “Brothers Welfare Support Foundation” (2002), and “Nehemiah” (2014), surviving until 2016.

Director Park In-geun, who had been arrested on charges including embezzlement, also opened Siloam House, a residential facility for people with severe disabilities, in 1991 after serving a two-and-a-half-year prison sentence.

Park and his family also accumulated wealth by branching into profit-making businesses, including leisure sports (Big World Leisure Sports), cosmetics (Institute of Skin Science), and hot-spring operations (Sasang Haesu Hot Spring). Such ventures would have been difficult without approval from the Busan city government.

The foundation, which had been notorious in the region for decades, finally disappeared into history on January 10, 2016, when the Busan city government won a lawsuit seeking the final cancellation of its establishment authorization and the dissolution of the corporation.”

ⓒInternational Newspaper (www.kookje.co.kr)

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Koojke Article:
Truth and Reconciliation Commission to Launch Ex Officio Investigation into “Yeonghwasuk·Jaesaengwon”

*PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS IS AN OLDER ARTICLE:
*Original Korean article published on August 23rd, 2023.
ChatGPT English Translation posted to Paperslip on September 11th, 2026.
Please see original Korean article for photographs.
BOLDS and blue highlighting ours.

“First-ever ex officio investigation by the 1st and 2nd Truth and Reconciliation Commissions into human rights violations at a mass confinement facility

Nine months after survivors called for the truth to be uncovered following reports by this newspaper

Commission: “Children were illegally confined without authorization from an administrative agency, and the city turned a blind eye”

343 people to be investigated, including those who applied to the Commission and those transferred from the facility by the Sisters of Mary

Shin Sim-beom, Reporter
mets@kookje.co.kr | Published: 2023-08-23 15:01:19

An ex officio investigation will be conducted into the Yeonghwasuk·Jaesaengwon case, which has been identified as the beginning of the human rights abuses that occurred at mass confinement facilities in the Busan area and as the city's largest facility for vagrants during the 1960s. The investigation comes approximately nine months after survivors began calling for the truth to be uncovered.

The 2nd Truth and Reconciliation Commission announced on August 23 that it had decided to launch an ex officio investigation into the Yeonghwasuk·Jaesaengwon case. The Commission unanimously approved the matter at its 60th plenary meeting, held on August 18. This is the first time that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, across both its 1st term (2005–2010) and 2nd term, has initiated an ex officio investigation into human rights violations that occurred at a mass confinement facility.

Previous investigations into human rights violations at mass confinement facilities, including Brothers Welfare Center and Seongam Academy, were conducted as cases filed by individual applicants. Under the Framework Act on Clearing Up Past Incidents for Truth and Reconciliation, the Commission may initiate an ex officio investigation when there are substantial grounds to recognize an incident as historically significant and as qualifying for a truth-finding investigation, and when it determines that establishing the truth is of significant importance.

Caption: Survivors of Yeonghwasuk and Jaesaengwon held a press conference in front of Busan City Hall last January, calling for the truth to be uncovered. International Newspaper DB. (See original Korean article for photos).

Specifically, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission will examine human rights violations suffered by people confined there at the time, including beatings, sexual assault, other forms of abuse, and forced labor. From the 1960s through the early 1970s, people were forcibly confined at Yeonghwasuk and Jaesaengwon through illegal street crackdowns and similar practices. The general rule was for young children to be assigned to Yeonghwasuk and adults to Jaesaengwon, but in reality there was little distinction between the two.

Meals consisted only of things such as corn gruel or barley rice, leaving residents to suffer from hunger. Dozens of people were crammed into narrow living spaces known as “platoons,” where they had to sleep on their sides in extremely cramped conditions. Although most of the confined residents were teenagers, they received no proper education.

The investigation will also examine whether the procedures used by Yeonghwasuk and Jaesaengwon to crack down on and confine people were lawful; how subsidies received from the Busan city government were used; and whether government and administrative bodies—including the central government, Busan city government, and Saha-gu (then Seo-gu)—as well as the police, turned a blind eye to, aided, or concealed human rights violations.

A Truth and Reconciliation Commission official said:

“Yeonghwasuk·Jaesaengwon had no authority to independently crack down on vagrant children without authorization from an administrative agency, yet it illegally confined children, while Busan City and others knew about this and turned a blind eye. It has been confirmed that government administrative agencies neglected their duties, including failing to inform parents of the whereabouts of children who had been confined.”

A total of 343 people are subject to the ex officio investigation. They include seven people who directly filed applications for a truth-finding investigation with the Commission; 28 victims who filed through the Comprehensive Support Center for Victims of the Brothers Welfare Center case and other cases operated by Busan City; and 231 people identified through records including the list of first-generation residents of the House of Boys in Busan, operated by the Sisters of Mary.

In 1970, the Sisters of Mary took over more than 300 children from the incorporated foundation Yeonghwasuk and transferred them to the House of Boys in an effort to rescue children who were being abused at Yeonghwasuk. Children who were transferred to Brothers Children's Home (the predecessor of Brothers Welfare Center), Chilseongwon, and other facilities are also included among those subject to the investigation.

Survivors welcomed the decision to launch the ex officio investigation.

Son Seok-ju, head of the Busan Yeonghwasuk·Jaesaengwon Survivors' Association, said:

“I am glad that the movement calling for the truth to be uncovered—which began with the hope of having what happened recognized as something that actually happened—has crossed a major threshold. For the sake of those who were unjustly forced to end their young lives, I hope that a thorough investigation will establish the full reality of what took place.”

The association, formed in December of last year, had been calling on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to conduct an ex officio investigation while speaking out about the harm they suffered at the time.”

ⓒInternational Newspaper (www.kookje.co.kr)

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Kookje Article:
“[Exclusive] Truth and Reconciliation Commission to Investigate the Veiled History of “Chilseongwon”

*PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS IS AN OLDER ARTICLE:
*Original Korean article published on October 15th, 2024.
ChatGPT English Translation posted to Paperslip on September 11th, 2026.
Please see original Korean article for photographs.
BOLDS and blue highlighting ours.

Shin Sim-beom, Reporter
mets@kookje.co.kr | Published: 2024-10-15 19:24:18 | Page 6

“Once the Truth and Reconciliation Commission completes its investigation into the Yeonghwasuk·Jaesaengwon case, it will immediately proceed with an investigation into another Busan facility for housing vagrants, Chilseongwon. This facility represented another dark side of the region's vagrant-control policies, and human rights abuses similar to those at Yeonghwasuk and Brothers Welfare Center were committed there.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission announced on October 15 that it would begin work to establish the truth about Chilseongwon as soon as the Yeonghwasuk·Jaesaengwon investigation is completed. The aim is to uncover the full truth regarding victims of facilities for housing vagrants throughout the Busan area.

Chilseongwon was Busan's official facility for housing vagrants that followed Yeonghwasuk·Jaesaengwon. (Reported previously by the International Newspaper, including on December 12, 2022, page 6.) The first such facilities, Yeonghwasuk·Jaesaengwon, were effectively used as official facilities from 1962. Then, under the “Busan City Ordinance on the Establishment of Jaesaengwon,” enacted in 1968, they entered into a contract with the city to house vagrants, formally establishing the legal basis for their operation.

The history of human rights abuses that originated at Yeonghwasuk·Jaesaengwon continued through Chilseongwon (1971–1975) and Brothers Welfare Center (1975–1987). In other words, only the location of the violence changed; the system itself remained in place. The ordinance that provided the basis for this system of abuse was not repealed until 1990, three years after the Brothers Welfare Center scandal.

Life at Chilseongwon was just as brutal as at other facilities.

A victim of Chilseongwon, identified only by his surname Park and in his 60s, testified:

“When I was around elementary-school age, I was playing near Haeundae Station when I was suddenly grabbed and dragged away in a box truck. Children as young as little kids and men in their twenties were being held there. We were forcibly assigned to labor attaching flower decorations to the ends of toothpicks, and if we failed to meet our quotas, the beatings came. When it was time to sleep, they stripped us completely naked, made us sleep pressed closely against one another, and put us to bed. There was a pond in the facility's yard, and the director would throw children who disobeyed into it.”

There are not many known cases of victims. As of May, only six Chilseongwon cases had been filed with the Commission.

However, the Commission has obtained records showing that children from Chilseongwon were transferred to another facility operated by the same foundation, Aegwang Children's Home. It plans to use these records to locate surviving victims and determine the specific forms and extent of abuse suffered in the Chilseongwon case.

ⓒInternational Newspaper (www.kookje.co.kr)

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