Brutal Face of Seoul Shown in Political Prisoners' Suffering

The Times
February 26, 1999

WHEN Woo Yong Gak left prison yesterday he left behind a world of almost complete isolation in a 12ft-square cell, where he was denied human contact and information of any sort.

The South Korean Government did everything it could to make him - and hundreds of others - recant their communist beliefs. From the 1950s to the 1970s, that meant conditions of unimaginable harshness. Despite the bitter winters, the cramped cells were not heated and prisoners were subjected to beatings. Photographs smuggled out in the 1970s showed trussed inmates beaten to a pulp if they did not renounce their beliefs. Thousands, like Mr Woo, never did, and many of them died unknown even to human rights groups. One of Mr Woo's first acts was to thank Amnesty International for bringing the fate of political prisoners to outside attention.

'There was virtually no human contact at all,' an Amnesty researcher said.

'Since they came from the North there would be no family to visit them. There might be a religious figure or a human rights worker allowed in later, but for many the only contact might be a few words with a guard as they went for exercise.'

In the 1990s conditions are believed to have improved, but medical care remained poor. The 16 other men freed from political sentences of between 29 and 41 years served well beyond a Korean life term, which is normally 16 to 18 years. Mr Woo's health has held, apart from a stroke which left him with a minor disability.

Despite having a President who was held under the same draconian law, South Koreans can still be arrested for giving aid and comfort to North Korea. Last year 400 such arrests were made.

Mr Woo hopes to go back to see his wife and son in North Korea. But there is little likelihood that they are alive. The relations of anyone who is politically suspect or an inconvenience are usually executed.