hankyoreh

The National Intelligence Service (NIS) and the prosecution on October 26 arrested a 44-year-old U.S. citizen, Jang Min-ho, former vice secretary-general of the opposition Democratic Labor Party (DLP) Lee Jeong-hun, and a South Korean businessman identified as Son Jeon-mok. The three are being charged under the notorious National Security Law for allegedly meeting a North Korean agent in China in March of this year. The day before, the NIS announced that it had brought a current vice secretary-general, identified as his surname, Jang, and a businessman identified as Lee, under investigation in relation to the case.

The NIS and the prosecution have been investigating several few figures who were student activists in the 1980s on charges of meeting with a North Korean spy.

The NIS is investigating whether the accused conducted any espionage following instructions from North Korea. An official of the NIS, under the condition of anonymity, said, "These people were all involved in the same incident. We should find out why they met the North Korean spy, and what they talked about."

Lee has denied the allegations that he met a North Korean agent, and said that he had not received any instructions from Pyongyang.

The NIS is known to be focusing on Jang’s activities in particular. Jang reportedly entered a South Korean university in 1981, but went to the U.S. the following year. After returning from the United States, he began working in business in South Korea. The NIS has closely watched his conduct for more than 10 years and it recently confiscated documents containing names of political figures and people belonging to civic organizations at his home. According to NIS officials, Jang visited North Korea in 1989, 1998 and 1999.

A NIS official said that it is important to know 'what Jang talked about with North Korea and to find out whom he met in South Korea.' The prosecutors have mentioned the names of former student activists in the 1980s as those possibly falling under this part of their investigation.

The DLP spoke strongly against the arrest of one of its vice secretaries-general, calling the incident "clear political oppression." DLP chairman Moon Sung-hyun accused the NIS of taking advantage of the current North Korean security crisis and for depending on the controversial National Security Law, which is considered by many activists and politicians a remnant of the dictatorial regimes.

Additionally, some doubts are being raised over the case suddenly appearing just when relations between the two Koreas soured following the North’s nuclear test. Jang last visited Pyongyang in 1999, so his arrest warrant comes six years after the fact.

In response, the NIS claimed that the timing was just coincidental. The prosecution also denied Moon’s claim that the spy case had come to light in an exercise of deliberate timing.