Three family members of Koreans who were drafted into Japan’s Imperial Army during World War II said Monday they have filed a lawsuit with a local court to seek compensation from the South Korean government.

South Korea and Japan signed a treaty in 1965 in which Japan agreed to pay $800 million as compensation for its 1910-1945 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.

South Korea under Park Chung-hee’s rule, however, spent most of the payment to revitalize its economy and failed to adequately compensate the victims.

“As a result, South Korea owes each former Korean conscript 100 million won ($93,000),” the South Korean chapter of the Asia Victims of the Pacific War said at a press conference in downtown Seoul.

More than 100 members of the association have gathered to demand that the government compensate three plaintiffs ― Kim Jong-dae, Kim Jeong-in and Seon Tae-su ― for Japan’s enlistment of their family members.

“Now that our economy is fully developed, the government should pay the victims what it owes,” the association said, adding that the Japanese government and Kim Jong-pil, the then-prime minister under Park, should make public the documents related to the 1965 treaty.

Jang Young-gi, the lawyer representing the plaintiffs, said South Korea should return at least part of the compensation to the victims, as the 1965 treaty barred South Korean individuals from seeking compensation from Japan.

Japan argues that the treaty settled all issues between the two countries, with two of the aforementioned plaintiffs having lost a compensation claim filed with a Tokyo court in 2001. The Japanese court said South Korea, not Japan, should pay the reparations

A 2012 ruling by the South Korean Supreme Court, however, brightened hopes for the victims, saying Koreans who were forced to work for Japanese firms during the occupation still had a right to be compensated by their former employers. (Yonhap)