No Plot, High Court Rules

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No Plot, High Court Rules

The Seoul High Court ruled Tuesday that the 1997 incursion by the North Korean army at the truce village of Panmunjom was not the result of a plot to help then-presidential candidate Lee Hoi-chang win the presidency.

The Seoul District Court in December sentenced Oh Jeong-eun, a former Blue House official, and two others - Jang Seok-jung and Han Seong-gi - to three to five years in prison for conspiring to help the then-ruling party win the 1997 presidential election by instigating the North's sudden show of force.

The Seoul High Court overturned that decision Tuesday, saying the unexpected movement of North Korean troops to Panmunjom was the result of a "act only on the part of Han Seong-gi."

The court said in its ruling that "It is difficult to say that Mr. Oh and Mr. Jang traveled to Beijing with the intention of arranging the incursion." Even though the decision held that Mr. Han had, in fact, asked North Korean officials for the troop movement, the court overturned the verdicts against all three men.

The High Court, however, did decide that all three are guilty of violating the National Security Law for illegally contacting North Korean officials in Beijing. Mr. Han was given a suspended three-year prison term, and Mr. Oh and Mr. Jang to suspended two-year terms. Prosecutors indicted the three in October 1998 in what they said was a plot to swing public sentiment toward Lee Hoi-chang's harder-line position toward the North and away from that of Kim Dae-jung, who later won the presidency. It is unclear why North Korea might cooperate in such a scheme.

The opposition Grand National Party on Tuesday welcomed the court's ruling. "The result shows that the case was political trickery intended to bury Lee Hoi-chang," said Kwon Chul-hyun, the party spokesman. The ruling Millennium Democratic Party issued a statement saying only, "The sentencing of the three acknowledges that there indeed was a request."

The High Court also upheld the lower court's decision clearing Kwon Young-hae, former head of the National Security Planning Agency, of all charges. Mr. Kwon was accused in 1998 of ordering the three men to arrange an incident.



by Lee Ka-young

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