3 Imprisoned in DMZ Plot

The Seoul District Court found a former government official and two others guilty of asking North Korean authorities to instigate exchanges of gunfire at the truce village of Panmunjom during the 1997 presidential campaign and sentenced them Monday to three to five years in prison.

Oh Jeong-eun, a former Blue House official, was sentenced to five years in prison and suspended from official duty for three years for violating the National Security Law, which bars unauthorized contact with North Korea. Jang Seok-jung and Han Seong-gi, both middlemen conducting business between China and North Korea, were sentenced to three years in prison and had their civic rights revoked.

The court cleared Kwon Young-hae, former head of the National Security Planning Agency, of all charges. There was no evidence indicating Mr. Kwon actively attempted to discard or hide documents related to the alleged crime, the court said.

The defendants were indicted in October 1998 on charges of contacting North Korean authorities in Beijing during the 1997 presidential campaign to ask them to initiate a violent confrontation at Panmunjom to boost the chances of the then ruling party presidential candidate, Lee Hoi-chang. The three wanted to hurt the chances of Kim Dae-jung, whom conservatives accused of being soft on communism.

However, the court did not implicate the leadership of the Grand National Party in the scheme, citing a lack of evidence.

by Lee Ka-young