Poet Kim Nam-joo acquitted in retrial 46 years after ‘South Korean National Liberation Front’ case

After 46 years, the late poet Kim Nam-joo has been acquitted in a retrial stemming from the South Korean National Liberation Front Preparatory Committee case, one of the anti-Yushin underground organization cases during Park Chung-hee’s rule. Kim served 10 years in prison after receiving a heavy sentence.

The Seoul Central District Court’s Criminal Division 28 issued the verdict on the charges, including violations of the National Security Law. The court found that evidence obtained during Kim’s investigation could not be used because he had been illegally arrested and detained and subjected to assault and other harsh treatment.

“

Kim and others had appeared in court and testified about illegal detention and unlawful investigations, but the psychological effects of the illegal detention may have remained.

Kim had made statements in court that amounted to a confession to robbery. The judges, however, found the confession difficult to trust. The court said Kim and others had testified about illegal detention and unlawful investigations, and that the psychological effects of the detention may have continued.

The judges concluded that the confession alone was not reliable enough to establish guilt without objective evidence. The South Korean National Liberation Front was a secret organization formed in February 1976 with the goal of opposing the Yushin system and pursuing a pro-democracy movement. It distributed leaflets in Seoul criticizing the Yushin regime.

“

It is not sufficiently credible to recognize guilt based only on a confession without objective evidence.