Controversy Looms Over Government Truth Finders’ Move

Controversy rages on as the 2nd Presidential Truth Commission on Suspicious Deaths has designated three prisoners, one North Korean agent, and two leftist guerillas, who were killed by torture conducted to force them to renounce their ideology as pro-democracy activists.

Conservatives, academics and a majority of people signaled their opposition, saying, “It is an act of treason to aggrandize North Korean operatives as pro-democracy heroes just because they died while refusing to renounce their ideology.”

“Forcing the renouncement of their ideology was basically an illegal act,” the commission said on June 1. “Their struggle against the breach of basic rights led to the repeal of forced ideological renouncement and written pledges to obey law and helped the process of democratization [of the country].”

At issue is whether North Korean agents and pro-North guerillas could contribute to the South’s democratic movement.

“The Miranda case led to better protection of the rights of the arrested. But Miranda himself was a terrible person,” said Ahn Kyung-hwan, dean of the College of Law at Seoul National University. “It is a logical leap to see their struggle has made democracy possible in this country.”

“The law on the commission defines any resistance to authoritarian rule from 1965 onward as part of the democratic movement,” said Kim Dong-hoon, dean of the College of Law at Kookmin University. “It is contradictory to designate a North Korean spy of the 1950s who chose death for his loyalty to the North and his conviction as a contributor to the democratic movement.”

“Their refusal to surrender to pressure in order to keep their convictions did not run counter to universal values,” said Han Sang-jin, a sociology professor at Seoul National University. “We as a society should value human beings more than ideology, and respect universal values.”

The commission explained, “The act of their resistance is seen as resistance to authoritarian rule.” It added, “The backdrop against it is that it has helped enhance freedom of ideas and conscience, and that it has contributed to the forced defection of leftist prisoners being repealed.”

Bulletin boards at many Web sites were flooded with netizen postings protesting that if those who spied attempted to subvert democracy, then democratic activists who arrested and reported on them quelled democracy. Numerous angry postings temporally overloaded the commission’s Web site

needjung@donga.com