Chinilpa

Chinilpa (Korean: 친일파; lit. pro-Japan faction) is a derogatory Korean term describing ethnic Koreans who collaborated with Imperial Japan during either the forced protectorship period (1905–1910) or the colonial period (1910–1945). The term builbae (부일배; 附日輩; lit. people who collaborated with Japan) has also been used to describe collaborators.

The term was popularized in the mid-1960s, around two decades after the surrender of Japan at the end of World War II and the liberation of Korea. It referred to any ethnic Korean who actively collaborated with the Japanese colonial government or worked against the Korean independence movement. The term is also used to refer to Koreans during the late Joseon period that advocated for closer relations or unification with Japan, such as the members of the Iljinhoe or Five Eulsa Traitors.^[1] Prosecution of chinilpa gained increasing support in South Korea after the gradual democratization during the 1980s and 1990s. The first anti-chinilpa legislation was passed in 2005: the Special Law to Redeem Pro-Japanese Collaborators' Property.