On May 10 last year, at the Suwon District Prosecutors’ Office in Yeongtong-gu, Suwon-si, Gyeonggi-do, Park Gwang-hyeon, Human Rights Protection Officer of Suwon District Prosecutors’ Office, is announcing the results of the interim investigation into the case of an ‘underground organization infiltrating labor groups’ violating the National Security Act. Suwon = Yonhap News (
Regarding the Itaewon disaster that occurred in Yongsan-gu, Seoul in 2022, an executive of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions was sentenced to heavy punishment for acting after receiving an e-mail directive from North Korea telling him to “expel the anger of all walks of life to the fullest extent.”
According to the legal community on the 24th, on the 6th, Suwon District Court Criminal Division 14 (Chief Judge Ko Kwon-hong) sentenced Mr. Seok (53), head of the Organizational Dispute Department of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, who was arrested and indicted in May of last year on charges of receiving and acting on orders from North Korea more than 100 times over several years. Sentenced to 15 years in prison.
On November 15, 2022, about two weeks after the Itaewon disaster, Mr. Seok was told by an agent from North Korea’s Cultural Exchange Bureau, “With this large-scale disaster, a political situation similar to the struggle to uncover the truth about the ‘Sewol Ferry’ disaster in 2014 has occurred within society. I received an email with an instruction saying, “I hope that we will actively develop organizational projects to vent the anger of all walks of life as much as possible, focusing on creating .”
The directive regarding the Itaewon disaster states, “Use this large-scale disaster as an opportunity to actively develop organizational projects with a focus on creating a political situation within (Korean) society similar to the struggle to uncover the truth about the Sewol Ferry disaster in 2014.” It was confirmed that it was contained.
The court said, “It is impossible for a North Korean agent to have issued an order out of a feeling of mourning and mourning the great pain of the families of the victims of the Itaewon disaster. The contents of the directive and report boil down to one goal: ‘overthrowing the Korean liberal democratic system.’ Mr. Seok criticized Mr. A, saying, “Even though he seems to have been well aware of this situation, he went along with it for a long time.”
During the trial, it was revealed that Mr. Seok frequently reported the progress of the operation to North Korea and that he had sent an oath of loyalty mentioning “Comrade Kim Jong-un’s sole leadership of the South Korean revolutionary movement” and “I will give my all.”
The file in Mr. Seok’s memory card also contained an order from North Korea to check the election trends of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions. It was discovered that Mr. Seok compiled and reported the election strategies for each faction according to the instructions. The court found this part of the charge to be true and found Mr. Seok guilty of espionage.
In addition, the court found Seok guilty of detecting and collecting state secrets, including files containing videos and photos of facilities, runways, and missile batteries at the U.S. military base in Pyeongtaek and Osan Air Force Base.
Mr. Seok had submitted an appeal to the court on the 11th, disobeying the first trial ruling.
Seo Da-eun, online news reporter dada@segye.com
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