ID :
200809
Fri, 08/12/2011 - 06:28
Auther :
Shortlink :
http://m.oananews.org//node/200809
The shortlink copeid
Possessing N.K.'s flag, photos not illegal: court
SEOUL (Yonhap) - A South Korean citizen should not be punished for simply possessing the national flag of North Korea or photos of the country's former and current leaders, the top court ruled Friday.
The 49-year-old man surnamed Jeong was earlier convicted of making an unauthorized visit to Pyongyang in November 2005 and keeping in his possession the national flag of North Korea, photos of its leader Kim Jong-il and his late father Kim Il-sung and books praising the communist nation that he obtained during the trip.
In South Korea, citizens are banned from traveling to the communist North without prior permission from authorities as well as possessing materials promoting the "enemy" nation under the strict National Security Law.
On Friday, the Supreme Court partly cleared Jeong of the charges, ruling that simply possessing the North's national flag and its leaders' photos does not constitute a violation of the law.
"In order to be accepted as enemy-benefiting materials, (they should) include proactive and aggressive contents that put the nation's existence, security and the liberal democratic order in danger," Judge Chon Soo-an said. "The flag and the photos cannot be regarded as such materials."
Despite the judgement, the judge upheld a lower court's one-year jail sentence for Jeong, holding him accountable for making the illegal visit and keeping Kim Il-sung's memoirs.
"Jeong's possession of 'With the Century' constitutes (carrying) an enemy-benefiting material," the judge said referring to the memoirs widely known to have been written by the late leader.
The judge also reiterated the lower court's original ruling that said Jeong's unauthorized visit to the North was made not for the purpose of promoting exchange and cooperation between the two countries, but against the interests of the South, reaffirming the one-year prison term and the one-year suspension of his professional license.
South Korea is technically still at war with the North since the Korean War ended with an armistice in 1953, not a peace treaty.
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The 49-year-old man surnamed Jeong was earlier convicted of making an unauthorized visit to Pyongyang in November 2005 and keeping in his possession the national flag of North Korea, photos of its leader Kim Jong-il and his late father Kim Il-sung and books praising the communist nation that he obtained during the trip.
In South Korea, citizens are banned from traveling to the communist North without prior permission from authorities as well as possessing materials promoting the "enemy" nation under the strict National Security Law.
On Friday, the Supreme Court partly cleared Jeong of the charges, ruling that simply possessing the North's national flag and its leaders' photos does not constitute a violation of the law.
"In order to be accepted as enemy-benefiting materials, (they should) include proactive and aggressive contents that put the nation's existence, security and the liberal democratic order in danger," Judge Chon Soo-an said. "The flag and the photos cannot be regarded as such materials."
Despite the judgement, the judge upheld a lower court's one-year jail sentence for Jeong, holding him accountable for making the illegal visit and keeping Kim Il-sung's memoirs.
"Jeong's possession of 'With the Century' constitutes (carrying) an enemy-benefiting material," the judge said referring to the memoirs widely known to have been written by the late leader.
The judge also reiterated the lower court's original ruling that said Jeong's unauthorized visit to the North was made not for the purpose of promoting exchange and cooperation between the two countries, but against the interests of the South, reaffirming the one-year prison term and the one-year suspension of his professional license.
South Korea is technically still at war with the North since the Korean War ended with an armistice in 1953, not a peace treaty.
)
