2 S. Korea Dissidents Figure in Amnesty Plan

TOKYO —  As part of its amnesty program under President Kim Dae Jung, South Korea announced Monday that it will free two long-term political prisoners, along with 17 suspected spies and more than 1,500 petty criminals.

Neither the two dissidents nor the suspected spies, most of whom are thought to be North Koreans, will have to sign statements confirming that they will obey South Korea’s laws.

However, most South Korean prisoners of conscience--the bulk of whom are serving sentences for security violations such as affiliating with Communists or North Korean groups--will remain in jail.

To gain release under the amnesty program, the South Koreans still will be required to write a statement, which the government must find adequate, that addresses three issues: why they were imprisoned, how they would support themselves if released and whether they would obey the law and constitution.

Among the 17 suspected spies set to walk free Thursday--the one-year anniversary of Kim’s inauguration--is Woo Yong Gak, 70, believed to be the world’s longest-serving political prisoner. He has been imprisoned for nearly 41 years after being captured as a North Korean spy. Woo was arrested July 12, 1958, off the west coast of South Korea while trying to infiltrate. The other 16 have been held for three decades or longer.

It was unclear what will happen to the North Koreans after their release. The government said it made special exceptions to its signing requirement as a “humanitarian gesture,” because the prisoners have relatives in North Korea who might face persecution.

The Kim administration said it also will pardon South Korean political prisoners Kang Yong Ju and Cho Sang Rok, profiled in a Los Angeles Times story last September, who steadfastly refused to sign statements that would have gained their release last fall.

Like the 300 others who remain in jail, they contend that having to sign anything violates their human rights.

The government will waive the signature requirement for the two men, who have been imprisoned for 13 years and 20 years, respectively. Among the reasons it cited was pressure from domestic and international human rights groups.

This is the second review of political prisoners since Kim, himself a former dissident, took office. Last fall, about 90 political prisoners won their freedom by submitting the documents with answers to the government’s questions.

This time, 29 signed the documents. Twenty-four of them will be freed, and five will have their sentences reduced.

In an interview earlier this month, Kim, who spent six years in prison and 10 years under house arrest, insisted that the signature policy was politically necessary. Asked if he would have signed, Kim became animated.

“I don’t think I would like signing it, to tell you honestly,” Kim said. “But how can a pledge to abide by the law be a violation of human rights?”

Moreover, Kim indicated, the questionnaire was a political compromise. “There is a large conservative force in our society who are worried that those released will engage in communism and anti-government activities. There are a considerable number of such people, and we need a statement to persuade such worried people.”

He noted that prisoners are no longer asked to sign an oath renouncing communism, as they were before he took office, and are free to protest laws as long as they do so legally.

Some of the sentences the prisoners are serving seem out of sync with the drastic change in attitude toward North Korea under Kim. Kim has adopted an “engagement policy,” in which once-forbidden private contact between South and North Koreans is permitted and companies are encouraged to do business over the border.

But “praising or encouraging” North Korea still is considered a security breach.

On Monday, Minkahyop, an organization that represents the prisoners’ families, issued a statement welcoming the pardons but said it is “disappointed that prisoners of conscience are still asked to sign the statement and as a result, many of them will remain behind bars.”

Cho, 52, has been in prison since returning to Seoul from Tokyo in the late 1970s after giving a guest lecture in which he criticized a former authoritarian regime’s attempt to change the constitution, said his sister Cho Jum Soon.

Soon after he was sentenced to life in prison for espionage, his wife divorced him and moved to the United States with their 2-week-old baby. He has not seen the child since.

The government said Cho was being pardoned because others arrested around the same time had previously been released.

Cho’s sister, who has been protesting at the prison in the southeast city of Andong nearly every Thursday afternoon for the last five years for her brother’s release, was overjoyed.

Kang Yong Ju, 36, has been in Andong prison for handing a videotape to students who the government says were spies. In a letter to his 73-year-old mother last summer, he explained his decision to remain in prison rather than sign the government documents.

“I couldn’t accept that I have to show my inner thoughts to the authorities and be judged,” he said. “If I refuse to sign, I’ll be freer in the court of conscience.”

The government also will free 1,508 common criminals. They are not required to sign anything.

Chi Jung Nam of The Times’ Seoul Bureau contributed to this report.