‘Changwon Spy Case’ or ‘National Security Law Victims Case’? Trial Resumes After 13 Months

The trial of four members of a South Korean unification movement group resumed after a 13-month delay, but all four defendants refused to answer questions at the hearing.

Changwon District Court’s Criminal Division 4 held the sixth preparatory hearing on charges including special entry and exit, meetings and communications under the National Security Law. The defendants did not have to attend, but all appeared and declined to make statements. Their lawyers said they were exercising a constitutional right to remain silent to consistently express their opposition to what they called the law’s unfairness.

Prosecutors accuse the four of meeting North Korean agents in Cambodia and elsewhere between March 2016 and November 2022, receiving $7,000 in operational funds, forming an anti-state organization called the Self-Reliant People’s Vanguard, collecting information on South Korea and reporting it to North Korea. The allegations also include activities such as supporting North Korean athletes at the 2018 Changwon World Shooting Championships, campaigning to reopen the Kaesong Industrial Complex and attending rallies calling for the removal of pro-Japanese remnants.

“

The four defendants are suffering from the violence of state power. The National Security Law can label any innocent citizen a spy.

The National Intelligence Service and prosecutors call the case the “Changwon spy case” because the defendants operated mainly around Changwon. Civil society groups instead call it the “National Security Law victims case,” describing it as a public-security crackdown using the law. The statute allows penalties of up to death or life imprisonment for forming or joining an anti-state organization, and up to 10 years in prison for contacting its members or people acting on its instructions.

The court said both sides want the proceedings to move effectively and quickly. It will hold another preparatory hearing on Nov. 2 to decide the trial format and procedures. The defendants deny all charges. They were released on bail in December 2023 and are standing trial without detention after the case moved from Seoul Central District Court to Changwon in April 2024. Proceedings have since faced procedural disputes, a judge-recusal request and changes to the bench.

“

We will do everything we can so that the four wronged people can return to their ordinary lives, and we will fight to abolish the National Security Law to the end.