hankyoreh

By Kim Mi-hyang, staff reporter

In 2003, Kim Myung-soo, 59, who was working on a master’s degree in Korean literature, opened a small bookstore online to help cover his tuition and living expenses. Kim bought books at used bookstores for his graduate studies and then put them for sale online.

For four years, business went pretty smoothly. Kim, who had majored in modern and contemporary literature, also sold books about socialist literature from the Japanese colonial period that he was studying and writing papers on for his graduate classes. The books included “North Korean Literary Theory,” “Anti-Japanese Revolutionary Literature and Art,” and “History of Armed Resistance to the Japanese.”

But around the time that Kim completed his coursework in the fall of 2007, he suddenly came under the scrutiny of the prosecutors. Apparently, selling books about North Korea on his online bookstore was a violation of the National Security Law

Following the guidance of an investigation manual that was made in the 1970s, the prosecutors charged Kim, classifying 310 of his books as subversive material that aided the enemy since they contained words such as “North Korea” and “the Juche idea” in their introductions. During the hearings, which were held once a month, Kim had to discuss three books at a time and explain that they were not subversive material.

It was not until four years had passed - and Kim had covered 70% of the books in the indictment - that the judge in the first trial had had enough and acquitted him of his charges.

“Most of the books in this case are on display at public libraries and are easily accessible to the general public, and Kim also cited these books in his academic writing. They cannot be seen as endangering the security or the existence of the state,” said Hon. Choi Gyu-il, a justice in the criminal division of the Suwon District Court, clearing Kim of all charges. This happened after the presiding judge had been changed four times.

Kim thought that he was finally free from the charges, but the prosecutors appealed. During the second trial, the first criminal division of the Suwon District Court, with Hon. An Ho-bong presiding, found Kim guilty after only three hearings. “Nineteen of the books represent an active and aggressive threat to the fundamental order of liberal democracy, as well as the safety and existence of the state, going beyond the bounds of the freedom of expression. Considering the current security situation - the confrontation between South and North - freedom of thought is not permitted unconditionally,” the court said in 2012, sentencing Kim to six months in prison, suspended for two years.

Kim appealed the decision. In Kim’s view, being found guilty of violating the National Security Law would effectively end his career as a researcher. In Sep. 2013, the Supreme Court annulled the guilty verdict and remanded the case to the Suwon Local Court.

The second criminal division of the Suwon District Court, with Hon. Ko Yeon-geum presiding, acquitted Kim in Dec. 2013. “We cannot find any clear evidence demonstrating that Kim intended to commit an act that aids the enemy,” the court ruled. “The argument that he operated the online store for academic purposes and for profit cannot be refuted.” The legal battle that began in 2007 was finally over, around six years later.

While he won in the courts, Kim lost a great deal during those six years. While being taken around from court to court, he had to give up his dream as a scholar of Korean literature. For unexplained reasons, universities did not assign him lectures.

It has been a long time since he closed his online store, which was his only livelihood. The father of three children, Kim transferred his second child from a university in Seoul to a school in the provinces that would provide a scholarship for tuition and expenses.

“I don’t think that the intellectual foundation of Korean society is so fragile that we should tremble in fear just because a few copies of North Korean books are being sold online,” Kim said. “Academic information about North Korea is not something that should be banned; rather, it is something that we should be actively treating as a subject of analysis and research.” Kim is planning on suing the Korean government to compensate him for damages.

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