hankyoreh

A young newspaper publisher who was executed in the early 1960s for collaborating with North Korea was acquitted Wednesday in an emotional trial that cleared one of the most wrenching legacies of the country's decades of authoritarian rule.

Jo Yong-su, the founder of the Minjok Ilbo meaning People's Newspaper, was executed at the age of 32 after being convicted by a military court of setting up the newspaper with North Korea's financial support and being a member of pro-Pyongyang underground organizations.

"The defendant is innocent," Judge Kim Yong-seok of the Seoul Central District Court said, as his family members and friends applauded and wept. There's no evidence that he participated in such pro-North Korean parties, the judge said.

Cho, who was born in 1930 into an elite family in southern Korea -- with his father being a newspaper publisher and a veteran lawmaker -- attended Japan's Meiji University. He developed a neutral nationalist view amid the maelstrom of South and North Korea's division and returned home in 1960 to become politically active.

He established the Minjok Ilbo in February in 1961, just months before Park Chung-hee, then an army general, overthrew the government in a May 16 coup. His independent newspaper sold well, with stories criticizing the authoritarian regime, divulging officials' corruption and promoting peaceful reunification with North Korea in a sharp contrast to the established papers which aligned with the Park regime.

Jo was arrested shortly after the May 16 coup, along with his senior staffers. The junta's court sentenced him to death in August, and an appeals court upheld the ruling in October. He was executed in December. His colleagues served jail terms.

The ruling said, "The Minjok Ilbo ... inspired and supported the North Korean puppet group by promoting and instigating South-North Korean talks and the exchange of the economies, letters and cultures and the talks of the students." The court referred to the North Korean government as a "group," because South Korea didn't recognize the North as a nation under its anti-communist law.

"He would finally think half of his unresolved feelings have been relieved. I appreciate the judge's wise and fair judgment," Jo Yong-jun, 74, the late publisher's younger brother, said.

The case still reverberates through South Korean politics, with Lee Hoi-chang, a former chairman of the conservative opposition Grand National Party, having taken part in the sentencing as one of the junta's judges. The GNP will regain power next month when its President-elect Lee Myung-bak is sworn in.

Asked of his feelings toward the judges, however, the younger brother said, "The judges too lived in a harsh world at that time, and they wouldn't be any different from us, utterly worn out over the years." A senior member of the Minjok Ilbo, who was sentenced to five years in Jail in 1961, was also acquitted.

Jo Yong-jun took the case to the court last year after a presidential commission aimed at shedding the light on crimes committed by past authoritarian governments kicked off under the directive of President Roh Moo-hyun, who leaves office in February.

Jo's family members said they will consider filing a compensation suit against the government.
SEOUL, Jan. 16 (Yonhap)