The government has decided to confiscate assets that had belonged to nine people who collaborated with Japan during its colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula from 1910 to 1945, including the assets of Lee Wan-yong and Song Byung-jun.

Lee is a well-known pro-Japanese collaborator who represented the Joseon government during the signing of the 1905 treaty that gave Tokyo control over the peninsula.

The government's decision, the first of its kind, was made Wednesday at a plenary session of the Investigative Commission on Pro-Japanese Collaborators' Property, a presidential panel established last year to identify properties of alleged collaborators.

The nine-member commission unanimously decided to seize some 250-thousand square meters of land worth about three-point-six billion won owned by nine collaborators.

Details on properties subject to the confiscation will be notified to the Finance Ministry. The ministry will use the assets to compensate independence fighters and their descendants, and also support other programs to commemorate the anti-Japanese independence movement.

The commission said it will continue to identify and confiscate assets of other pro-Japanese collaborators.

[Photo : ]