공포와 관용 : 한국전쟁기 부역자 처벌의 이중성과 그 유산

Abstract

During the Korean war, and after the Seoul city was retrieved from North Korean troops, the South Korean government began exacting punishments on collaborators who cooperated with the North Korean troops. In the Seoul area, not only open but also very public mass executions called ‘wholesale slaughters’ served as a fearful display for the population. At the time many reporters affiliated with foreign press, as well as the United Nations force, were present in the Seoul area, and the news of a mass execution would instantly be treated as international reports, but they were summarily silenced by South Korean authorities. In the meantime, throughout local areas, swift judgments and summary executions -accompanied by private and harsh punishments- were commonly occurring practices for known collaborators. In the wake of searching for and eliminating DPKR’s remnants, local left-wing supporters and partisan guerrillas, a lot of civilians were killed as well.BR Meanwhile, the South Korean government’s treatment of social elites or leaders in private and public sectors, such as national representatives(members of the national assembly), academic professors, literature authors and cultural figures, who all collaborated with North Korean authorities or troops in several capacities, were so tolerant and benevolent compared to the treatment ordinary citizens received from the government. Some of them were indeed judged or executed, but most of them were pardoned without any clear explanation. BR The punishment of collaborators by the South Korean government was triggered by many reasons. First, there was not only an administrative need for public punishment but also a practical necessity to ensure public security, as well as a sense of anger and revenge. Secondly, such punishments were also a continuation from overly excessive violence and tendency to suppress any kind of social disturbance that had continued since the year 1948. And finally, there was an ultimate political need to have the public turn a blind eye to the administration’s glaring political failures.BR There were differences in the South Korean government’s punishment of collaborators, not only between celebrities and ordinary people but between residents of the capital city and other local regions. Such polarity was caused by a series of elements. According to the nature of certain cases, some of them were opened to the public while some cases even involved foreign countries’ troops, media and governments. How the war was progressing also had to do with certain cases which unfolded as they did. And there was the issue of wartime propaganda, and the need to win over certain portions of the public, that also contributed to the eventual culmination of some cases. The overall polarity between cases did leave a long lasting legacy and repercussions on the post-war Korean society.