Warrants of 7 Delegates Investigated

A Judge in exclusive charge of arrest warrant in the Seoul District Court, Lee Je-Ho executed yesterday the actual investigation of arrest warrants, summoning six officials of the Pan-Korean Alliance For Reunification (BomMinRyon) including the vice chairman Kim Kyu-Cheol (67) and prof. Kang Jeong-Gu (56, Dongkook Univ. Sociology Department) to the court, who were issued the arrest warrants on suspicions of the violation of the National Security Law.

The defense counsel asserted in the court that the defendants` activities did not contain an act advantageous to the enemy, and it was the illegal arrest that the national security officers arrested them urgently. A lawyer Kim Seung-Kyo told that ``visiting North Korea with the government`s permit, the officials of the BomMinRyon including the vice-chairman Kim merely had a dialog to revise the platforms such as 6.15 South-North joint declaration. It was against the law that the prosecution urgently arrested them as it did not receive the arrest warrants from the court.``

Lawyer Kim Dong-Kyun, a defender of prof. Kang, maintained that ``in a currently favorable situation in which both political leaders agreed on the mutual respect, it is unfair to designate mere well-wishing remarks as the violation of the National Security Law.``

The 30 officials of the BomMinRyon protested to the prosecutors` warrant request in front of the court house, and some suspected persons exercised the right of silence against the judges` questions.

The police and the national intelligence agents escorted 7 defendants through the exclusive elevator for defendants to extremely preserve the security.

Meanwhile, regarding the additional investigation on the contents of visitors book at the Mt. Baekdoo and the Mt. Myohyang, an official of the prosecutors office said that ``the prosecution will review the direction of the investigation after the court decides whether to take them into custody.``

Shin Suk-Ho kyle@donga.com