A civilian panel yesterday accused former South Korean president Park Chung-hee of being a Japanese collaborator for serving as an officer in the Japanese army during colonial rule.
Park, who ruled South Korea for 18 years from his 1961 coup until his 1979 assassination, was among 3,090 people whom the panel accused of "inflicting damage to peoples of our and other countries" by cooperating with Japan.
Assessment of Park is split in South Korea. Some respect him for his economic development drive, but others accuse him of being a dictator who suppressed dissidents with his iron-fisted rule.
Park's daughter Park Geun-hye, chairwoman of South Korea's main opposition Grand National Party, expressed regret at yesterday's announcement. Her party has accused moves to probe South Korea's recent past as being a politically motivated witch hunt to taint the younger Park, a likely presidential contender in the next election in 2007.
"People and history will make a judgment on that," Park told South Korea's Yonhap news agency. "Won't there be a day when they [the panel] will also be evaluated for their distortion?"
The panel's announcement was part of its five-year project to publish the country's first directory of Japanese collaborators by 2007. The Institute for Research in Collaborationist Activists is leading the project that receives some government funding.
Criteria for the panel's judgment include whether one served as a second lieutenant or higher officer in the Japanese military, a category that included former president Park, said Park Han-yong, a member of the panel. Records show Park served as a second lieutenant for the Japanese army for a year after being commissioned in 1944.
"This directory isn't aimed at punishing any individuals, but its purpose is to straighten out the criteria for social values and to give lessons to generations to come," panel chairman Yoon Kyoung-ro said in a statement.
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