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Kang Yong-ju

Prosecutors requested a one-year prison sentence for Kang Yong-ju, an unconverted long-time political prisoner submitted for trial over failure to honor his Security Surveillance Act obligations. Kang’s attorney demanded an acquittal, calling the refusal to report “a minimum act of conscience and a Maginot line for preserving human dignity.” Sentencing in Kang’s first trial is scheduled for Feb. 7.

On the afternoon of Dec. 20, Judge Cho Gwang-guk of the 4th criminal division of Seoul Central District Court heard final arguments for Kang’s case from the prosecution and defense.

“While we understand the pain and suffering the defendant must have endured, the pursuit of justice in terms of criminal jurisdiction must be considered in the Republic of Korea as a constitutional state,” the prosecutors said.

“We hope [the court] will rule to convict the defendant, and we request a sentence of one year in prison,” they continued.

Kang, 55, was sentenced to life in prison in 1985 after being convicted as part of the so-called “ Western Illinois spy ring,” but remained imprisoned for 14 years after refusing to sign a statement renouncing his views. (The “Western Illinois spy ring” refers to four students who were accused of spying for North Korea after three of them had allegedly met with a North Korean agent while they were exchange students at Western Illinois University.)

Though freed in 1999, he was subjected to security surveillance measures by the Ministry of Justice seven times over the 18 years since according to the Security Surveillance Act on abstract grounds of “risk of repeat offense.”

The Ministry of Justice’s security surveillance review committee is empowered to order security surveillance against individuals violating the National Security Act and other laws to prevent repeat offenses. Once security surveillance measures are imposed, an individual must not only file reports with his or her local police station when moving residences or traveling for ten days or more, but also deliver reports on major activities every three months.

But Kang has refused to file the reports, claiming they “violate privacy and freedoms.” In the final arguments, Kang’s attorney claimed he “took part in the democratization movement in Gwangju as a high school student and helped hold down the South Jeolla Provincial Office before fleeing in fear, and then made a false confession after being tortured for two months as a university student.”

“After this incident, which he described as ‘driving cracks into his soul,’ the defendant swore never to betray his conscience again, and as part of his struggle he refused to draft the renunciation statement the others were completing during his incarceration,” the attorney continued.

“He could not admit to being a communist for the sake of immediate benefits,” the attorney explained.

The attorney went on to call Kang’s refusal to report “a minimum act of conscience and a Maginot line for preserving human dignity, which the defendant staked his entire character and risked criminal punishment to uphold.”

The attorney called on the court to “acquit in consideration of whether there are any actual concerns that the defendant might offend again and why he is refusing to report.”

In a final statement, Kang said, “Although I managed to leave the barred cell less than one pyeong (3.3 square meters) in area where I was kept for 14 years, I have been trapped in the barless prison of the Security Surveillance Act for 18 years.”

“Security surveillance tethers my life to the past and arbitrarily presumes that I will offend again. By constantly binding me to the past, it prevents me from taking one step toward the future and a better tomorrow,” he continued.

“People called me a dreamer when I fought for 14 years from prison to abolish the renunciation system and oaths to abide by the law, which are in violation of freedom of conscience, but my lonely dream finally became a reality,” Kang said.

“The Security Surveillance Act has already been abolished in social and ethical terms, and I ask that you allow all of us to dream of living together as free and equal beings,” he added.

By Kim Min-kyung, staff reporter

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