A South Korean activist group released a list Monday of more than 3,000 notable collaborators during Japan's 1910-1945 colonial rule of the peninsula.

Among the most prominent figures on the list was the late President Park Chung Hee, who served as an officer in the Imperial Japanese Army in Manchuria in the 1940s.

Park ruled South Korea from 1961 following a military coup until he was assassinated by the head of his intelligence agency in 1979. Park was the father of Grand National Party leader Park Geun Hye.

"The people and history will make a judgment on the issue," party leader Park was quoted as saying by a spokeswoman.

"The list is not aimed at punishing individuals but building the criteria of our social values and leaving historic teachings to our descendants through this filing of historic facts and their assessment," said Yoon Kyoung Ro, head of the activist group, the Institute for Research in Collaborationist Activities.