Jeju court grants 227 million won compensation in insurrection retrial acquittal

The 제주지방법원 (Jeju District Court) has finalized a criminal compensation award of 227,032,000 won for the detention suffered by the late 박태경 (Park Tae-kyung), who was cleared of insurrection charges at a retrial in 2023. The award goes to the claimant, 박재홍, and was made public in the court notices of the Official Gazette (관보), issue No. 21357 of 9 November 2026, under docket 2026코23. The court dated its public notice 1 November 2026.

The ruling closes a case that began as a retrial of a conviction for insurrection (내란). The 제주지방법원 acquitted the defendant on 13 June 2023 in retrial case 2023재고합13, and the compensation claim was subsequently filed under the separate docket 2026코23. The published notice states only that the compensation decision has become final and that the sum is payable for detention, without reciting the reasoning or the length of custody behind the calculation.

The decision was issued by Criminal Division No. 6 of the 제주지방법원 (형사 제6부), whose bench signed the notice: presiding judge 김유성, with judges 이황선 and 강서연. It is one item in a long run of compensation disclosures that the same division published in this issue, most of them concerning men born between 1910 and 1931 who were convicted in the postwar period and later acquitted on retrial.

What the notice records

• Case number: 2026코23, criminal compensation, linked to retrial 2023재고합13 (insurrection).
• Defendant: 박태경 (朴泰敬), born 15 August 1918, recorded as deceased.
• Claimant: 박재홍.
• Underlying judgment: 제주지방법원, 13 June 2023, retrial 2023재고합13, acquittal.
• Amount awarded: 227,032,000 won, for detention.
• Publication date of the notice: 1 November 2026.

Other insurrection retrials in the same issue

The same division published further finalized awards in insurrection-related retrials, each attached to the acquittal that preceded it:

• 강문옥 (姜文玉, born 1930), case 2024코153, retrial 2023재고합13, acquittal of 13 June 2023, 138,528,000 won.
• 고정용 (高禎庸, born 1927), case 2024코198, retrial 2023재고합31, acquittal of 12 September 2023, 138,143,200 won.
• 김상진 (金常珍, born 1923), case 2024코210, retrial 2024재고합13, acquittal of 3 September 2024, 142,378,400 won, with two co-claimants.
• 양계철 (梁桂撤, born 1911), case 2024코263, retrial 2024재고합8 (aiding insurrection), acquittal of 25 June 2024, 183,790,400 won, dated 23 October 2026.

Alongside these, the issue carries compensation notices from the same division in retrials for other security-era offences, including 국가보안법위반 and 국방경비법위반 cases. Among them, 정창종 was granted 156,869,200 won for detention plus 500,000 won in costs, 김평문 209,331,200 won, 고종권 348,244,000 won, and 현우방 890,718,400 won, the largest single sum in the series.

What the disclosure does and does not say

The notice is a publication of an already-finalized compensation decision, not a fresh ruling on guilt: it confirms the amount, the beneficiary and the acquittal it derives from, and nothing more. No statement of the prosecution’s original sentence, the period served, or the court’s method of calculation appears in the text. The publication requirement exists so that awards in favour of deceased defendants can be formally notified to their families and representatives.

For readers, the significance lies in the sums and the timing: more than two decades after the retrials began, the state is still settling detention compensation in batches for people convicted of insurrection and related security offences in the postwar years, in awards that in this single issue run from tens of millions to nearly 900 million won. The 박태경 award, at 227,032,000 won, sits mid-range in that series and closes one more file from a retrial docket that has now produced its own compensation caseload.

Source: 관보 (Official Gazette of the Republic of Korea), No. 21357, 9 November 2026, Court notices (Section I), p. 218 (official reference: 제주지방법원 형사보상결정 공시, case 2026코23).