hankyoreh

taking part in a candle light rally.

Kim Ji-tae, a 47-year-old village chief jailed for staging demonstrations to protest the relocation and expansion of a U.S. base in the village of Daechuri, Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, was designated as a 'prisoner of conscience' by Amnesty International, an international human rights organization.

On November 30, Amnesty International said it designed Kim as a prisoner of conscience and will take international action to ask for his release. Kim is the first South Korean to be designated as a prisoner of conscience without violating the notorious National Security Law. On November 3, Kim was sentenced for two years in jail on charges of interrupting public officials. He is now serving his time in a correctional facility in Anyang.

"Kim is a prisoner of conscience, who exercised his right to participate in a peaceful rally. He was arrested because of his ideology and beliefs," Amnesty International said. "Under international law, the government has no right to detain a prisoner of conscience."

On Dec. 1, a regional inspector at Amnesty International will meet Kim at his correctional facility and will send letters to the South Korean government and courts to appeal for Kim's release, according to Kim Hee-jin, an official at Amnesty International's Korean office.

Amnesty International issued three statements concerning the government's human rights violations in the process of the U.S. base relocation to the village of Daechuri. Priest Moon Jeong-hyun, co-president of an organization to ban the U.S. base's relocation to Pyeongtaek, said, "Kim didn't use physical force, while riot police and the defense ministry used violence."

Amnesty International defines a prisoner of conscience as someone imprisoned solely for the peaceful expression of their political or religious beliefs. In South Korea, former President Kim Dae-jung, poets Goh Eun and Kim Ji-ha, and professor Song Du-yul were designated as prisoners of conscience by the organization.

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]