Song Was Not NK Politburo Member: Seoul Appellate Court

By Na Jeong-ju
Staff Reporter

Song Du-yul, a Korean-German sociology professor accused of violating the anti-communist security law, was released from prison on Wednesday after an appellate court cleared him of key charges and ordered a suspended jail sentence.

The Seoul High Court sentenced Song to three years in jail with the term suspended for five years, ruling that there was no clear evidence indicating he was a member of the powerful politburo of the North Korean Workers’ Party.

The dissident professor was freed from a detention center in Seoul, where he has been held since last November, two months after returning home from Germany.

Song was sentenced by a lower court to seven years in jail in late March as the court acknowledged key charges that he had served as a secret member of the decision-making politburo of the North’s ruling party under the alias of Kim Chul-soo.

``It is difficult to accept the prosecution’s claim (that he was a member of the politburo). It lacks sufficient evidence,’’ presiding judge Kim Yong-kyun said.

Accepting some of the charges that he had worked for the North, the court said Song deserves punishment but the sentence by the district court should be reduced. The high court ruled that Song is guilty of involvement in pro-North activities, including unauthorized meetings with the late North Korean leader Kim Il-sung.

Wednesday’s ruling drew mixed responses from liberal and conservative groups. The ruling is expected to fuel disputes over Song and the anti-communist National Security Law.

Critics argue the law’s vaguely worded clauses have been misused by previous governments to suppress freedom of expression and conscience and crack down on the democracy movement.

Song, 59, a professor at Germany’s Muenster University, was taken into custody for violating the security law late last year after he arrived here in September, ending 37 years of exile due to his alleged pro-Pyongyang activities.

The ruling came as political parties are set to debate whether to keep the controversial security law. Recent polls show more than 80 percent of lawmakers from both ruling and opposition parties recognize the need to revise or scrap the security law.

``We hope the court’s ruling will be a step toward the abolishment of the draconian law that has curbed the democracy movement in South Korea,’’ said Kim Hyung-tae, a lawyer for Song.

The case has been drawing attention from international human rights groups and German academia.

In May, 48 German political and academic leaders delivered a statement calling for Song’s release to the presidential office of Chong Wa Dae. A group of 175 Korean students studying in Germany filed a petition to the appeal court early in June asking for his release.

International human rights organization Amnesty International also sent a letter in April, urging Chong Wa Dae to abolish the law.

jj@koreatimes.co.kr