☐Background and need for the study
❍In response to calls for a revision of the Special Act on Support for Atomic Bomb Victims in Korea, a study is needed in the National Assembly to identify relevant issues and directions for legislation.
❍Efforts to identify the status of Korean atomic bomb survivors and discuss national support began in earnest after a complaint with the National Human Rights Commission by a late, second-generation atomic bomb survivor activist, Hyung-ryul Kim, in 2003, leading to the enactment of a special law on support for Korean atomic bomb survivors in December 2016 and its implementation in May 2017.
❍Efforts to revise the current law have been ongoing, and the 21st National Assembly has proposed partial amendments to the Special Act on Support for Korean Atomic Bomb Victims, including recognition of second- and third-generation atomic bomb victims and the state’s obligation to implement a national memorialization project.
☐Amendment/legislation issues regarding Korean atomic bomb victims law
❍The most controversial issue, the inclusion of Korean descendants of atomic bomb victims in the definition of atomic bomb victims, is deemed challenging to accomplish in light of the Japanese case and the positions of relevant ministries.
-The current Japanese Atomic Bomb Survivors Support Law does not recognize such descendants as atomic bomb victims, and until recently, lawsuits against the Japanese government to recognize second-generation victims have been unsuccessful.
❍A call for mandatory government-led memorialization projects, such as creating an anti-nuclear peace park, is also an essential issue in the proposed amendment for the delayed national memorialization projects as defined in the current law.
-This is a call for a national memorialization project that contributes to integrating the past, present, and future of atomic bomb victims into the collective memory of Korean society, including the creation of an anti-nuclear peace park in Hapcheon, where atomic bomb victims are concentrated.
-The implementation of the memorialization projects led by the government as well as Gyeongsangnam-do, which has enacted an ordinance to support atomic bomb victims, constitutes long-awaited projects for the atomic bomb victims.
☐A comparative review of Japan’s atomic bomb victim assistance system
❍In the 1950s, Japan enacted the Atomic Bomb Survivors Support Law as a social welfare measure for atomic bomb survivors, and the atomic bomb survivor assistance system evolved as a result of the process of lawsuits against the Japanese government of the survivors who are non-resident in Japan or non-Japanese.
❍The recent development with respect to the definition and scope of radiation exposure is that, as a result of the so-called “black rain” lawsuit, people who were exposed to radiation due to “black rain” after the atomic bombing in Hiroshima have been included in the scope of atomic bomb victims.
❍Despite the continued defeat of the second-generation victims in the relevant lawsuit, it is essential to note that the definition of atomic bomb victims in the Japanese legal system has not been fixed throughout history but has evolved through the recognition of the statuses of overseas victims.
☐Legislation for Korean atomic bomb victims
❍The national recognition and integration of Korean atomic bomb victims requires an in-depth understanding of the complex historical and political context of migration, colonization, war, radiation exposure, division, Korean-Japanese relations, and peacebuilding.
❍Korean society’s responsibility toward atomic bomb victims lies in the fact that, instead of confronting the layered history and political implications of this issue after their return to the Korean Peninsula, it has left their “recognition struggle” in a long history of indifference and marginalization, excluding them from the reparation negotiations of the Japan-Korea agreement.
❍In the context of a future vision for a nuclear-free peace on the Korean Peninsula, the National Assembly must pay attention to the symbolic status of Korean atomic bomb victims who experienced humanity’s only nuclear weapons catastrophe and develop a legislative rationale for national recognition to integrate their memory into the collective memory of Korean society and make the healing of their suffering inherent to future generations.
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