Pro-Unification Group Leader Arrested

On July 19, the public safety department of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office arrested a man Woo (77), the vice-chairman of the association of branches in Seoul of the BumMinRyon or Pan-Coalition for Unification, accusing him of violating the National Security Law for admiration toward North Korea and communicating with North Koreans.

The prosecutors said that at Chosun University in Gwangju around 9:15 p.m. on July 15, Woo handed over a floppy disk consisting of 109 pages in the A4 paper format containing the loyal oath to the Kim Jong Il’s regime to a man Kim (49), a civil representative of Pyongyang, with the intention of conveying them to the Labor party of North Korea.

Woo is also suspected of possessing items benefiting enemies at his home such as “A Study of Reunification of our Motherland by Kim Jong Il,” “The Military First Policy of the General Kim Jong Il,” “The Theory of the Revolution by Kim Jong Il,” and other books, tapes, and paper works.

The investigation revealed that he wrote down his detailed activities in both Pyongyang and Seoul, including his childhood, entrance to the North Korea’s Labor party, and the procedure of selection as a spy agent to the South.

needjung@donga.com