S. Korea lawmaker indicted
Man charged with plotting pro-North rebellion against govt
SEOUL: South Korean prosecutors indicted a left-wing lawmaker on charges that he was plotting a proNorth Korea rebellion to overthrow the government, saying his plan posed a “grave” national security threat.
One-time lawmaker Lee Seok-ki from the small United Progressive Party was arrested by South Korea’s spy agency earlier this month for allegedly discussing launching strikes on national infrastructure in South Korea with his colleagues in May in the event of a war with North Korea. The National Intelligence Service later handed him over to prosecutors.
Lee has flatly denied the allegation, saying the spy service fabricated the charges to divert criticism that its agents allegedly posted online messages supporting the ruling party candidate and nowPresident Park Geun-hye and smearing her main liberal rival ahead of December’s presidential election.
The case triggered a massive political and media firestorm in South Korea, with critics raising questions over whether there is any substantial evidence to back up Lee’s alleged rebellion plot and noting past military-backed authoritarian governments often used rebellion charges to suppress political rivals.
Senior prosecutor Kim Soo-Nam told a news conference yesterday that Lee and his colleagues specifically brought up possible targets to attack, including a telecommunications facility in Seoul, during the May meeting, which drew 130 people. He said the plotters also discussed using websites to find ways to manufacture firearms and bombs.
According to transcripts of conversations at the meeting publicised by South Korean media, some participants talked about ways to make more powerful BB guns and searching the Internet to find ways to build homemade bombs.
Kim said Lee believed that high tensions between the two Koreas this past spring would lead to war.
“It’s an incident that an underground revolutionary organisation ... systemically and collectively plotted to overthrow a free democracy and posed a grave threat to” South Korea’s national security, Kim said.
Three of Lee’s colleagues were also indicted on Wednesday over the alleged rebellion plot, Kim said.
Earlier this year, North Korea sharply raised tensions by threatening nuclear war in anger over toughened UN sanctions over its third nuclear test in February. Animosities have gradually eased since then, though North Korea last week canceled planned reunions of families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War.
North Korea has called the alleged rebellion plot a “witch hunt” targeting those calling for greater reconciliation between the two Koreas, warning that it won’t sit idly by such a South Korean action. — AP