Prof. arrested for contacting N.K. teacher

On July 28, a former college professor of philosophy who received a book on authenticity ideology from his junior high school teacher, who engaged in pro-North Korea activities with the "Chochongryun" left-wing group, was sentenced to a year and two months in prison and disqualified from his post for two years for violating the National Security Law.

The Ministry of Justice stated that a prison sentence had to be meted out under the National Security Law because Mr. Han was acknowledged to have received authenticity-ideology-related books from a person related to Chochongryun, an anti-state organization, and kept them at home. The ministry added, however, that the facts that Mr. Han is old and refused his former teacher¡¯s proposal to introduce him to another person were taken into account.

Mr. Han was prosecuted due to allegations that he kept 24 books related to authenticity-ideology at his home, which he received from his former junior high school teacher, a Mr. Choi. The two met again when Han was studying at Tokyo University, Japan, and kept in contact until 1997.