KNCC

In 1948, the fledgling government of South Korea, supported by the US occupational

 army, passed the National Security Law, among other things outlawing Communism

and ‘anti-state acts that endanger national security’.  Under the dictatorship

governments, the NSL was used to the great detriment of the people

who sought democracy, and many Christians and others were imprisoned, tortured

and killed.  Although democracy came to South Korea, the NSL has not been repealed.

The election of President Park Geun Hye in December 2012 raised many questions

of election fraud and misuse of authority by the National Intelligence Service

(Korea’s spy agency) which oversees the National Security Law.  One after another,

 the NIS has raised issues which they claim as ‘national security issues’

to draw peoples’ attention away from citizens’ insistence on an investigation

into the election fraud scandal.

In August, the NIS claimed that government member, Representative Lee Seok Ki

of the Unified Progressive Party had been part of a plot to overthrow

the South Korean government (‘conspiring to stage a rebellion’) as part

of a Revolutionary Organization (RO) if war should break out during the spring of 2013

at a time when tensions between North and South Korea where high. On Sept. 4,

the South Korean National Assembly passed a proposal to lift legislative

immunity against his arrest, and the NIS took the government member into custody,

along with 6 others accused of RO leadership.

Civil society, democracy groups and the NCCK Human Rights Centre, also calling

for an investigation into the Park government, claim this whole situation is fabricated,

because the government’s desire is to abolish the Unified Progressive Party

which has been consistently insisting on the reformation of the NSI

and election investigation .

The trial of the 7 thus accused will take place Jan. 27 and 28.  The sentence

for ‘conspiring to stage a rebellion’ is death or life imprisonment.  The families

of the defendants have appealed to the NCCK Human Rights Centre to raise conversation

 on this situation within the Christian communities of South Korea.  On Jan. 16,

at the invitation of the Human Rights Centre, family members began a sit-in

in the NCCK building.  Each evening at 7 p.m. there is a prayer gathering,

and the Human Rights Centre is asking congregations to gather signatures

to petition the government to deal with this in a just manner.  On Jan 23,

a major prayer meeting is being held at the NCCK chapel, followed

by a candle-light demonstration in the street