CASE BY TRUTH & RECONCILIATION COMMISSION

[Anchor Lead]

To solve mysterious police cases a special commission was set up last year. It has produced quite a few results over the past year, but measures to restore victims' honor or compensate them remain close to zero.

[Pkg]

November 1968.
A fishing boat that departed from Goseong, Gangwon-do Province, was seized by a North Korean speedboat.

[Soundbite] (Daughter of man repatriated from N. Korea (VOICE MODIFIED)) : "The border is very ambiguous. They were fishing without any equipment. They crossed it by mistake."

Eight fishermen were abducted to North Korea, where they were tortured for half a year before being released. But investigative organs charged them with espionage and imprisoned them.

[Soundbite] (Daughter of man repatriated from N. Korea (VOICE MODIFIED)) : "Our family register says ‘Abducted to North Korea’ and it's highlighted with a different color. I got an impression that someone was monitoring us constantly."

The second Truth and Reconciliation Commission decided to investigate the case back in February. It recommended that the case be retried in order to obtain an apology from the government and restore the defendants' honor. However, the commission only issued a press release and stopped short of sending its recommendation directly to the relevant organs such as the Justice Ministry. Even after several months no tangible measures have been taken by state organs. The same goes for other unsolved cases, such as civilian massacres during the Korean War. The commission says it has yet to set up a department that would notify of its recommendations, and promised to fix the problem soon. Some of the bereaved families, tired of waiting, had to find lawyers on their own to have their cases retried in court.

[Soundbite] Choi Jung-kyu(Lawyer in fishermen abduction case) : "There are only recommendations because the gov‘t never received them. The situation has not changed whatsoever after the commission's investigation."

Some 200 recommendations issued by the first commission, which ended its term in 2010, have never been implemented. The May 18 Democratization Movement Fact Investigation Committee, which follows a similar law, made sure to send official notifications to the relevant organs so that its recommendations were implemented as much as possible.