초기 대한민국 정부의 한일관계 인식에 대한 비판적 고찰 병합조약 무효의 이론과 적용

Abstract

Based on newly declassified documents, this article illustrates contradictions over the Syngman Rhee government’s legal interpretation of the Korea-Japan Annexation Treaty in connection with the “liquidation of the past” and its practical implementation as a policy initiative. In a departure from a conventional approach that emphasized the Cold War structure or President Park Chung-hee’s “pro-Japanese” tendency, this article argues that the incomplete liquidation of the past stems from the Korean government’s ambiguous position on the legal validity of the Annexation Treaty, when it started bilateral negotiations to normalize diplomatic relations with Japan. Although the Korean government insisted that the Annexation Treaty is “already null and void,” it fell short of demanding official compensation for the colonial rule. This ambiguity led the Korean side to virtually recognize Japan’s colonial rule of the Korean peninsula and receive compensation in the form of “economic cooperation.” In this way, the “incomplete compensation of the past” has resulted in the recurrence of periodical disputes between the two states over the interpretation of the past history.