Ever since its transition to democratic governance, South Korea has had to reckon with the complicated legacy of its post-war dictatorship.

This has included various transitional justice commissions that have investigated decades of violence and human rights abuses, including massacres, enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings. One of these truth-seeking efforts resumed a little more than two years ago, when the Moon Jae-in administration relaunched the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Korea (TRCK) in Dec. 2020.

The commission looked into abuse at Brothers Home welfare center, known in Korean as Hyungjae Bokjiwon, and found that hundreds had died