S. Korea: Academic sentenced for aiding Pyongyang(Master spy got canned)

IHT ^ | Tuesday, March 30, 2004 | Samuel Len

[TigerLikesRooster]

Academic sentenced for aiding Pyongyang

Samuel Len/IHT

Tuesday, March 30, 2004

SEOUL A German citizen of South Korean descent who returned to his native land last year after 36 years of exile in Germany was sentenced on Tuesday to seven years in jail on charges of working for North Korea.

The defendant, Song Du Yul, is a sociology professor at Munster University. He left South Korea in 1967.

Song, 59, had been outspoken in his criticism of the regime of the South Korean military dictator Park Chung Hee during some of the darkest moments of the cold war.

The focus of the trial had been on whether Song had secretly been a member of North Korea's Communist Party Politburo since the early 1990s.

The academic has admitted to joining North Korea's Workers Party, the Communist Party, but has said that his s numerous visits to the isolated country were for academic purposes.

The court ruled in favor of the prosecution, saying that Song had violated South Korea's National Security Act, under which sympathizing with communism or with Communists, or aiding antigovernment organizations, is interpreted as a crime.

The Seoul District Court also ruled that Song's writings had supported North Korea's communist ideology and contributed to the nurturing of pro-North Korean views among South Koreans.

The prosecution had sought a 15-year prison term for Song.

Supplying ammunition to prosecutors, Hwang Jang Yop, a high-level North Korean official before his defection to South Korea in 1997, said that Song was known in North Korea under the alias Kim Chul Soo, and was the 23rd-ranking member of the Politburo.

Song returned to South Korea last autumn to attend an event organized by the Korea Democracy Foundation. But shortly after his arrival, prosecutors detained him. The trial began late last year.

The case has been viewed as the latest test of just how South Korea,

now pursuing a string of rapprochement projects with North Korea, should perceive the North and those who hold sympathetic views toward it.

The case has also been another reminder of a deep divide between younger South Koreans who support reunification with North Korea and older people here with memories of the Korean War half a century ago. who North Korea as a threat to South Korea's security.

Song's lawyer said that he would appeal the court's ruling.

''Hwang Jang Yop had not seen for himself, but had only heard from someone else that Professor Song was Kim Chul Soo," said the attorney, Kim Hyoung Tae.

Another source of the prosecution's charges was a former North Korean diplomat in Germany who had linked Song to the Politburo.

However, that diplomat, who defected to the United States, did not testify at Song's, trial.

"The only things that are left standing at the end of this trial are Professor Song's written works," his lawyer said, in a reference to the evidence.

"A seven-year sentence for written works is an unprecedented ruling," Kim said.

Academics warned that such a legal precedent would justify further efforts

to block freedom of speech and belief in a country that has made huge

progress in terms of democracy.

"Members of South Korea's establishment feel threatened by North Korea due to their memories of the Korean War," said Sonn Hochul, a political science professor at Sogang University. "But this has also made them unable to embrace views that differ from their own."

Song Rinn, the son Song Doo Yul, who has been in South Korea for the last several months during the investigation and trial said, "My father today became a prisoner of conscience." International Herald Tribune

[TigerLikesRooster]

One of the details left out in the article above is that he received as his operating fund hundreds of thousands of dollars from the N. Korean regime over the years. This was used to influence S. Koreans in Europe with pro-North views, and, in some cases, recruit them for N. Korean overseas propaganda operations. Some of the damning details were not covered in this article.

The late "Great Leader" Kim Il-sung reportedly viewed him as a valuable N. Korean asset in Europe. Song was playing a honest "dissident" while surreptitiously feeding N. Korean lines to Koreans in Europe.

The former N. Korean diplomat mentioned in the article was assigned as Song's handler while posted at the N. Korean interest section in E. Berlin. He later defected to U.S., bringing with him large quantities of documents. It is some of these documents which provided conclusive evidences to his connection with N. Korea. One of them is about changing his code name, Kim Chul-soo, after Mr. Hwang Jang-yop outed him in S. Korean presses several years ago, saying that Kim Chul-soo is actually Song Du-yul's code-name. At the time, Song had the nerve to brint suit against Mr. Hwang for defamation in S. Korean court.

[TigerLikesRooster]

Ping!

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

Thanks for the ping, and for your additions.

[AmericanInTokyo]

Thanks. Glad you are also back in the game, too!