National Security Act (South Korea)

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National Security Law

Hangul	국가 보안법
Hanja	國家保安法
Revised Romanization	Gukga Boanbeop
McCune-Reischauer	Kukka Poanpŏp

The National Security Law is a South Korean law which has the avowed purpose "to restrict anti-state acts that endanger national security and to protect [the] nation's safety and its people's life and freedom."

Based on the Law for Maintenance of the Public Security of the Japanese occupation of Korea, it was passed in 1948, and made illegal both communism and recognition of North Korea as a political entity. It has been reformed and strengthened with the passing of the times. The Anti-communism Law was merged into the National Security Law during the 1980s.

This law is acknowledged by some South Korean politicians and activists as a symbol of the anti-communism of South Korea's First Republic and its dictatorial period of 1964-1987. In 2004, legislators of the Uri Party, then with a majority, made a gesture as to annul the law, but failed owing to Grand National Party opposition. Many recent poll results show that more than half of the Korean people are in favor of serious amendments to the act, and the dispute continues.^[1]^[2]

This law has been regularly blamed for restricting freedom of speech:

Citizens may not join an organization with aims to overthrow the government;
Citizens may not create, distribute or possess materials that promote anti-government ideas;
Citizens may not neglect to report others who violate this law.

1 Administration
2 Notable cases
3 References
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Administration

The easiest to violate are Article 7 Clause 3 (Creation, Importation, Copying, Possession, Transportation, Distribution, and Selling of "Enemy's Expressions") and Article 10. (Knowingly not reporting violations to some articles). The South Korean High Court has a ruling history since 1978 that has classified 1,220 books and print material as "Enemy's Expressions" by force of precedence.

Two state-established Research Institutes decide what books and print material meet the criteria of "Enemy's Expressions": the Democratic Ideology Institute, established in 1997 and under the direct orders of the Chief Prosecutor, and the Public Safety Affairs Institute of the Korea National Police University.

However, since early 1990s, the Public Prosecutor's Office has chosen not to bring any citizens (or publishers) to the courts for what's deemed by common sense as not risky. Courts still invoke the law when increasing fines or years in prison for political charges against what the South Korean State deems subversive groups.

[edit] Notable cases

For instance, in 1998, Mr. Ha Young-Joon (하영준), a graduate student at Hanyang University formerly active with the International Socialists movement, was tried and sentenced to 8 months in prison for having summarized and made available online Chris Harman and Alex Callinicos's main writings on South Korea's national BBS network, in violation of NSA Article 7 Clauses 1 and 5.

In 2002, Mr. Lee, a new recruit in the South Korean army, was sentenced to 2 years in prison for having said "I think Korean separation is not North Korean but American fault" to fellow soldiers. The Military Prosecutor's Office could not charge him for what he had said, but it searched Mr. Lee's civilian house and found various books, and charged him in violation of the NSA Article 7 Clauses 1 and 5.

Other well-known uses of the National Security act include the 1999 banning of students' union Hanchongryun and the 2003 spy case against Song Du-yul, a Korean living in Germany. The severest penalty that could be given according to NSL is the death penalty. The best-known example of death penalty is People's Revolutionary Party Incident.