Court sentences `pro-Pyongyang` activists to prison terms

SEOUL, April 21 (Yonhap) -- A Seoul court on Tuesday handed down prison sentences
to the leaders of a left-wing group indicted on charges of spreading North Korean
propaganda and engaging in activities sympathetic to the communist state.
Choi Han-wook and Kang Jin-goo, current and former leaders of the Solidarity for
Practice of the South-North Joint Declaration, were given 30-month prison
sentences for pledging allegiance to North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and carrying
out directives handed down by the North's agents.
Two other senior group members were sentenced to 18-month prison terms, suspended
for three years.
"The defendants have beautified North Korea, disregarding the poverty-stricken
North Korean people and the father-son dictatorship," the Seoul Central District
Court said in a verdict. "Their activities could have given (the South Korean)
people a distorted view of the communist country."
South Korea's National Security Law prohibits activities seen as benefiting any
enemy state, namely North Korea, including contacting North Korean nationals
without government approval and sympathizing with its regime.
The court concluded that the group, given its principles and the activities of
its members, is pro-enemy.
The Seoul-based organization was established in 2000 to commemorate the
first-ever inter-Korean summit that year.
Prosecutors had indicted the four defendants in October for violating the
security law, reviving a decades-old controversy.
Liberals and civic groups have long called on the government to repeal the law
they say has been abused to crack down on anti-governmental movements, while
conservatives and the Lee Myung-bak administration maintain it is valid legal
tool against communist propaganda.
brk@yna.co.kr
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