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This News Service is posted by the
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                                          News Service 145/96

AI INDEX ASA 25/17/96
9 AUGUST 1996

REPUBLIC OF KOREA (SOUTH KOREA): AMNESTY CALLS FOR PRISONER
RELEASES IN RUN-UP TO ANNIVERSARY

The Government of  President Kim Young-sam should immediately
release all prisoners of conscience and stop arresting people
for merely expressing their opinion, Amnesty International
said today in the run-up to the 51st anniversary of Korea~s
liberation from Japanese rule.

      The human rights organization makes its appeal prior to
the anniversary on 15 August, which has sometimes been used
to amnesty political prisoners.

      ~The authorities~ refusal to review cases of unfair
conviction under past governments is incomprehensible,~
Amnesty International said today.

      ~President Kim Young-sam~s reform program has made no
difference at all to dozens of long-term political prisoners
who have been in prison since the 1970s and 1980s with no
apparent hope of release. These prisoners appear to have been
forgotten.~

      There are several hundred political prisoners in South
Korea. They include dozens of prisoners sentenced to long
prison terms under previous governments, after trials which
fell short of international standards.

      Long-term prisoners whose cases have attracted
international support include Yu Chong-sik who has been in
prison for 21 years,  Lee Hon-chi who has been in prison for
15 years, and Kim Song-man who has spent over a decade in
prison. Amnesty International believes that they and others
were convicted largely on the basis of confessions obtained
under torture.

      More than 200 people have been arrested under South
Korea~s National Security Law since the beginning of 1996,
mostly for membership of youth, student and socialist groups
and for  dissemination of material deemed to ~praise~ and
~benefit~ North Korea. Most were considered by Amnesty
International to be held solely for expressing an opinion
contrary to that of the government.

      They included 11 members of the League of Korean Youth
Workers who were arrested on 24 April for publishing and
disseminating material deemed to ~benefit~ North Korea.
Others charged for non-violent political offences were
teachers Soh Mi-oh and Hwang Yun-mi who were accused of
belonging to the Young Patriotic Group. Articles in the
group~s newsletter about reunification and a ~pan-national~
rally were deemed to violate the National Security Law.

      On 8 August human rights activists in South Korea have
launched a campaign to secure the release of political
prisoners and the repeal of the National Security Law.
Several hundred political prisoners are reported to have
started a simultaneous hunger strike.

      Amnesty International has called on successive South
Korean Governments to amend the National Security Law, which
provides long prison terms for people who are merely
exercising their rights to freedom of expression and
association, without use or advocacy of violence. The
organization has also called for the amendment of legislation
used to curb workers~ rights. ENDS\









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