hankyoreh

The Korea Teachers and Education Workers’ Union (KTU), at a press conference on January 22, strongly protested the arrest of Kim Maeng-gu and Choi Hwa-seop for violating the National Security Law. Kim and Choi, members of the union, posted North Korean materials on the union’s Web site, and were arrested on January 18.

The KTU says that a report by the Chosun Ilbo about the two teachers’ actions was largely fabricated. According to the KTU, the newspaper reported only some parts of the story, doing so sensationalistically to garner a reaction. The two teachers merely quoted remarks made by North Korean officials and media, said the KTU. The union cited as an example material that answers the question, "Why does North Korea want to produce nuclear weapons?" from a North Korean perspective: "North Korea claims that to possess self-defensive nuclear deterrence is its justifiable right."

In response, Judge Kim Jin-dong of Seoul Central District Court, who issued the arrest warrant for the two teachers, at the same time admitted, "On the KTU site, the introduction to the material reads, ’In connection with certain matters, North Korea explains the situation in this manner...’ " But Judge Kim defended his issuing of the arrest warrants by saying that the Web site only provided the North Korean perspective, which seemed to suggest that the teachers "unilaterally sympathized with the North’s positions. I thought that to teach such one-sided contents to middle school students, rather than college students, is not appropriate."

But the KTU argued that the related writing and photos were already published in some books and the official journal of the Democratic Labor Party (DLP), and people can easily access them through the Internet and books.

The KTU also said the police acted unlawfully in the process of searching and confiscating material, as well as in the arrest process itself. According to the union, earlier this month, the two teachers had agreed to appear in front of an investigatory committee starting on January 22. However, the police arrested them anyway on January 18.

Even before the police received a warrant for search and confiscation, they already had downloaded contents of a private Internet cafe to which the two teachers belong, as well as e-mails of the two teachers and their wives, the KTU said. It is also alleged that the police illegally tapped the teachers’ telephones.

Park Mi-ja, an official of the KTU, said, "Regarding the police and prosecution’s violation of the telecommunications secrecy law and the criminal procedure law, we will ask about their responsibility through legal examination."

The police have also been continuing a four-month-long investigation into a seminar held in September last year by the KTU’s Busan branch, saying that it "served to benefit the enemy." No one has so far been indicted. The materials for the seminar came under suspicion of being pro-North Korean because they used copied sections of the North Korean text, "Modern Joseon History," without providing "critical commentary" on the nature of the material.

But the investigation has caused controversy, as the police have carried out searches and confiscations in offices after workers have left the building, and have also performed searches without presenting warrants. They have also secretly investigated students without informing their parents.

In a similar case, the Chosun Ilbo reported in December that South Korean national security authorities are probing another teacher, a leader of the KTU Jeonbuk branch identified as Kim, but unrelated to the arrested Kim Maeng-gu. The Jeonbuk branch leader allegedly had middle school students participate in a memorial ceremony for North Korean guerrillas in May 2005. Since then, other conservative media outlets and the main opposition Grand National Party (GNP) have taken issue with the KTU, but there have been no official investigations into the alleged incident or other alleged incidents by the police or the prosecution.

An official with KTU called the reports by the conservative media and the investigations "a series of smear campaigns that smack of McCarthyism."

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