Four teachers received suspended jail terms Friday after a Seoul court found them guilty of engaging in pro-North Korea activities.
The four, who are part of a progressive teachers’ union, were indicted in February 2013 on charges of holding two lectures endorsing North Korean ideals from January 2008 to May 2009. The lectures, prosecutors said, took place in front of prospective teachers and fellow members of the Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union, the country’s second-largest teachers’ union.
The four were also charged with the possession of original North Korean texts and the distribution of excerpts from a memoir by North Korean leader Kim Il-sung in violation of the National Security Law.
The law bans any activities meant to praise, promote or propagandize North Korean ideals.
The Seoul Central District Court found them guilty of these charges and gave them 18-month sentences with a two-year stay of execution.
“The court finds them guilty of possessing documents that praise North Korea’s ‘songun’ and ‘juche’ ideologies,” Judge Cho Yong-hyeon said in a ruling, referring to the North’s military-first and self-reliance philosophies. “It is inappropriate for South Korean citizens, let alone teachers, to have such documents in their possession.”
The four, however, were acquitted of a charge of forming an “anti-state group,” though prosecutors had said the group they formed in January 2008 was “in the interest of the country’s enemies.”
“It is unclear who authored the documents that prosecutors submitted as evidence,” Judge Cho said. “Because it hasn’t been proven by testimony, the court cannot consider the evidence valid.”
Prosecutors had sought jail sentences of up to six years.
In a separate ruling, the Seoul court gave suspended sentences to nine former members of the now-dissolved Unified Progressive Party for creating an “anti-state group” in May 2006.
The nine were indicted in 2013 on charges of forming the group and attempting to follow the North’s plans of communizing South Korea.
They were given sentences ranging up to two years in jail, suspended for three years.
The minor opposition party was dissolved last month after the Constitutional Court ruled the party “unconstitutional.” (Yonhap)
