South Korean woman awarded $4 for brother’s war death

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REPORTING FROM SEOUL -– The elderly South Korean woman sees her older brother as a national hero, a young man killed in the line of duty over a half-century ago during the bloody Korean War.

For years, Kim Myung-bok has pursued the government for what she calls proper compensation for the sacrifice of Yong-gil, cut down in battle as an 18-year-old youth, barely out of high school.

Many South Koreans have expressed outrage over the government’s decision in the case: Officials offered Kim 5,000 won -- or about $4.36 -- as a gesture to the perished soldier, or as one newspaper editorial here wrote this week, ‘the value of a hamburger.’

Kim called the ruling an insult. ‘I fainted many times in a fit of uncontrollable anger when the notice was delivered,’ Kim, 63, told a South Korean newspaper. ‘What is the government doing for the young soldier who made the ultimate sacrifice?’

Korean officials now admit that the payment was not adjusted for inflation. The Ministry of Veterans and Patriots Affairs and the Ministry of National Defense each have suggested that it was the other agency’s responsibility to make sure such payments were awarded in real-time dollars.

In newspaper editorials and online rants, many South Koreans are calling for more ‘realistic’ compensation measures to honor the sacrifice of the war dead.

‘What kind of civil servant would decide on such compensation? That’s less than a bowl of noodle soup. It’s enraging,’ one person commented on an Internet chat room.

‘Those who died in that war didn’t fight for the compensation, but to grant [$4.36] to a family is an insult. These are people who have been living with pain and memories all their lives,’ another commenter added in the chat room.

Kim first applied for compensation for her brother’s death in 2008. After her brother was killed in 1950, two sisters later perished in a wartime explosion, forcing Kim to care for her mother -– a role traditionally played by sons in South Korean culture.

The government denied any payment, reasoning that such claims needed to be filed within five years of the soldier’s death. So Kim sued in an administrative court, and a judge ordered the government to make a payment.

The administrative court this week called the government’s payment ‘unreasonable,’ saying that families of soldiers killed in action today receive between $20,000 and $30,000.

In an editorial, the Korea Times blasted officials for what it said was their self-righteous attitude, citing ‘outdated and rigid regulations [to claim] that the sum is legitimate.’

Kim remains baffled as no one has told her that she will receive one cent more, despite the public outcry.

‘It’s OK that the government does not take into account what trials and tribulations my family went through,’ she said. ‘But it should not treat the war dead in this manner with that money.’

South Korean officials announced this week that they would establish new guidelines to better compensate the families of soldiers killed during the Korean War.

The decision, explained one lawmaker, represented the government’s ‘utmost efforts’ to honor its war dead with proper compensation.

But an official with the administrative court questioned the government’s entire action in the matter, calling it ‘difficult to understand.’

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-- John M. Glionna