Top court rules that victims of pre-1975 'vagrant' crackdowns should also be compensated
Published: 13 Nov. 2025, 14:49
![Children who are forcibly confined at Brothers Home in Busan in 1987. [JOONGANG ILBO]](https://koreaseafood.online/data/photo/2025/11/13/86ace081-6009-4864-80a6-b31678482888.jpg)
Children who are forcibly confined at Brothers Home in Busan in 1987. [JOONGANG ILBO]
A Supreme Court ruled that the state must compensate victims who were forcibly committed to Brothers Home before a 1975 Interior Ministry directive formally authorizing nationwide crackdowns on vagrants.
While multiple courts have previously acknowledged government liability for abuses at the facility, this is the first time the responsibility has been extended to the period before the directive was issued.
The Brothers Home case dates back to the 1970s and ’80s, when tens of thousands of disabled or homeless people were rounded up by police and confined in a state-sanctioned welfare facility in Busan, only to be subjected to forced labor, beatings and other forms of abuse.
Built under the former President Park Chung Hee administration, Brothers Home forcibly confined some 38,000 people from 1975 to 1987 under the pretext of cracking down on “vagrants.” Investigations later found that more than 650 people died at the facility due to forced labor, beatings, sexual violence and other abuses.
The case gained international notoriety when Netflix released its exposé documentary series “The Echoes of Survivors” in August. The series followed Netflix’s explosive 2023 documentary “In the Name of God: A Holy Betrayal,” which delved into scandals involving religious cults in Korea.
In August 2022, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission recognized the case as a “state-violence — induced human rights violation” and recommended that the government issue an official apology to victims and their families. A wave of lawsuits followed. Since its first ruling in March, acknowledging the state’s liability, the Supreme Court has continued to side with Brothers Home victims.
On Thursday, the Supreme Court overturned parts of a lower-court ruling that had partially dismissed damages claims filed by five victims, sending the case back to the Seoul High Court.
“There is sufficient reason to view that the government was directly or indirectly involved in the plaintiffs’ forced commitment to Brothers Home before 1975,” the court said.
![Still from the teaser clip for Netflix investigative docuseries ″The Echoes of Survivors: Inside Korea's Tragedies,″ released on Aug. 15. [NETFLIX]](https://koreaseafood.online/data/photo/2025/11/13/768901d9-e0cd-42d0-938f-469e34c49f06.jpg)
Still from the teaser clip for Netflix investigative docuseries ″The Echoes of Survivors: Inside Korea's Tragedies,″ released on Aug. 15. [NETFLIX]
In January, an appellate court had ruled in a separate case filed by 26 victims that while the state was liable and should pay about 13.7 billion won ($9.33 million), the period of responsibility applied only after Directive No. 410 was issued by the Park administration in 1975 to formalize crackdowns on vagrants.
The court held that there was “not enough evidence to conclude” that the state had directly or indirectly intervened in forced commitments prior to that. The Supreme Court, however, ruled that the state can be held responsible for unlawful acts even before the directive was issued.
“The government consistently carried out crackdowns and confinement measures against vagrants from the 1950s onward and expanded these practices through the later directive,” the ruling stated.
The court noted that “in 1970 alone, authorities rounded up 5,200 vagrants, of whom all but the 2,956 released home were placed in protective facilities,” adding that Busan continued to conduct sweeping crackdowns through 1974 and that guidance on such operations was distributed to district offices on Aug. 11, 1973.
A court official said the ruling confirms that “unlawful state action can also be established in relation to crackdowns and forced confinement conducted before the directive was issued.”
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY KIM JUN-YOUNG [[email protected]]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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