*** Latest Update ***
The Court agreed to bail Jung-geun!
Actually we had been unhappy because they were delaying the bail decision, but it was found there was some bureaucratic mistake and some documents were missing, and a local judge ruled that he is not a dangerous criminal who would eliminate evidence or run away from the upcoming court procedure. So we are happy that he can stay home and visit his psychiatrist before next court schedule.
But we are not completely pleased. the criminal charge labelling him as a nasty traitor for RETWEETING some fun North Korean quotes is still there, so we need to wait for the court to acquit him.
Still, I am glad this is his last letter from jail.
So, we are glad he's home, and our campaigning for his acquittal and abolition of the draconian National Security Law will go on. Thanks for attention! :)
***
A South Korean photographer and activist Park Jung-geun was arrested in January just because he RETWEETED North Korean posts.
Human rights groups like Amnesty International and Freedom House demanded his immediate release, and many international newspapers raised concerns.
News Reports on Junggeun's Indictment
Freedom House http://freedomhouse.org/article/south-korean-activist-indicted-sharing-tweet
Amnesty International http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/south-korea-must-release-activist-charged-over...
NPR http://www.npr.org/2011/12/01/142998183/in-south-korea-old-law-leads-to-new-c...
International Business Times http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/292186/20120202/kim-jong-il-retweet-south-kor...
NYT http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/03/world/asia/south-korean-indicted-for-twitte...
LA Times http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-south-korea-bookseller-20...
Huffington Post http://www.huffingtonpost.com/christine-ahn/south-korea-cracks-down-o_b_12837...
Al Jazeera http://www.aljazeera.com/video/asia-pacific/2012/02/20122454012791738.html
Mashable http://mashable.com/2012/02/02/south-korea-detains-man-for-retweeting/
Below is Mr. Park's third letter from jail to his friend. which is his own contemplation on what to tell "Your Honor" at the court.
<< My first draft of Court Statemet >>
Your Honor,
I solemnly notify my acknowledgement of my obligation to say only the truth at the court.
I do not know how Your Honor feels about this Court, or how significant Your Honor finds this case, but I could clearly picture how this proceeding would make your authority deteriorate. I think Your Honor must know this: this case is about the National Security Law which has manipulated South Korea for more than half a century, and is especially about "Article 7. Praise and Support of the Anti-State Group(translator's note: i.e. North Korea)", which is the most unconstitutional part of the draconian law. I am sure this court will reveal every dirty part of it.
First, I need to explain the absurdity of the police raid at my workplace and home. At 10:30 on September 21, policemen from Gyeonggi Security Agency seized my cell phone, computer, CDs, and books, which took about 8 hours. Finally, what they took away included my dad's CD of pictures of North Korean old Buddhist temples, where he visited and took pictures legally with official permission from the government. They took it just because the title of the CD said "prints of the North." Yes. They took almost EVERYTHING which looked related to "North Korea". They took my friend's picture given to me as a present.(Because there was a 0.4 inch long tiny North Korean national flag in it. But, you know what? A copy of that flag with a red star is NOT an enemy-benefiting material, legally.) They took a legally published South Korean book called "Contemporary North Korea", and the best-selling book named "Progressive Election Plan" written by a celebrity Professor Kuk Cho. They took very many items other than them, most of which were returned in 3 days. And they kept less than 6 items including the hard drive for longer time, which is completely pointless, because my hard drive did not even have a proxy server to visit banned websites anonymously, and I know no useful evidence was found there, because I do not really use those confiscated items.
What the policemen and prosecutors took seriously at first was a North Korean book named "Socialist Culture Construction", which I heard was not even included in my indictment letter. Why? Because, after investigating my friend who lent it to me, they found no evidence to make it an enemy-aiding item. In conclusion, the raid was useless, but there must be one reason to do that.
So, secondly, I am going to discuss the absurd reason of the raid.
Your Honor, I am hereby summoned to the court, because, as the prosecutor already said, I was accused of posessing-and-sharing(re-tweet) posts from @uriminzok, the North Korean Twitter account, and vidioclips on North Korean revolutionaries, and writing enemy-supporting posts. But, as I mentioned earlier at the prosecutors' investigation, I need to tell you again, I had no intention to support North Korea. I could simply say, "Believe me, what on earth could make a critic of North Korea who compared Kim Jong Il to "cancer" have genuine intention and willingness to benefit North Korea? I did not even join a pro-North group or student activism."
But, that's not enough. I need to let Your Honor know this: Gyeonggi Police Security Agency had secretly watched me since late 2010. They had collected copies of my Twitter posts since then, and finally raided my home and workplace on September 21 2011. How do I know that? Your Honor needs to understand one feature of Twitter - Twitter is not an online database where you could browse old items whenever you want; it is impossible to print out old posts that had been written months ago - which are now ten thousand tweets away. So, it is fair to say that the policemen just chose and targeted me and began to search/save my tweets months before the raid. This is from a bad intention to target and criminalize a harmless citizen peacefully expressing his own views. Some might say the procedure was legal and just, but I need to tell Your Honor that the investigation method was wrong from the beginning. As Al Jazeera News said, Twitter is especially like an everyday verbal action instantly from your thought. In the middle of everyday conversation, sometimes you bluff, joke, and tease. Twitter is just like that. But the law enforcement just failed to understand that characteristic, so they ended up selectively and sporadically choose my tweets out of context to indict me. This is just like cutting out some slip of the tongue from recorded casual spoken conversation.
This case is a sad consequence of misunderstanding and wrongfully investigating Twitter. Once a new form of media takes place, it should be understood in its own way. Even though the law enforcement says the raid was legal and just, it was a typical predatory prosecution that overinvestigated a harmless citizen to make themselves successful spy hunters. Re-tweeting and sharing on the Internet could not be enemy-benefiting. RT DOES NOT MEAN ENDORSEMENT.
Third, let me justify my activities.
As my defense attorney explained already, I belong to the Korean Socialist Party, which officially declared it is against North Korean leadership. I have been a loyal member who regularly donated to the party and joined its activism. I do not agree with Kim Il-sung's Juche(Self-Reliance) Philosophy, North Korea's nuclear plans, and its "Military First(Songun)" Policy. This is my own belief, but National Security Law denies my identity. None of what the Facts on Offenses Charged part of my indictment letter says is an enemy-benefiting activity with the actor's verifiable intention to support North Korea. Although all my posts are clearly ridicule and jokes, at the investigation by policemen/prosecutors they repeatedly questioned: "How could this be a joke", "No third-party person would consider this a joke", etc. I ask Your Honor on behalf of them. Who is the legetimate "third-party" person? What is a standard taste and ideology for a legetimate witness? Who decides that standard? How could you call South Korea a democracy if some authority feels free to define its own standard personality?
How could a government force a citizen to decode his/her casual joke. This just clearly violates my fundamental rights to freedom.
Nonetheless, I ended up being arrested and brought to this Court, and now I have to explain my activities.
The North Korean cultural terms like Juche, and Songun come to me as cultural images, rather than the real ideology they refer to. Young South Koreans like me would just laugh and ignore if someone show them North Korean propaganda video, because the propaganda is not convincing at all. That is why the TV comedians parodying North Korean soldiers are not arrested any more. It is just an old nasty slapstick comedy, that I was arrested and brought to the Court in the 21st century. This case itself is disrespect to Court, and National Security Law is a 1940s slapstick comedy.
Just because I am critical of the North Korean regime does not necessarily mean I must denounce it all the time. It could be an object of wordplay, satire, and reference. Banning them completely just violates my very very basic rights to freedom.
Fourth, I argue that North Korea does not constitute the legal definition of "the anti-state group" of the law, which my lawyer already had argued.
What is the point of denying a country acknowledged by the international community? If calling North Korea a neighboring "state" is illegal, most of the TV news journalists would be the NSL offenders. To me, both Koreas are objects of satire. Most of South Koreans would agree.
Lastly, I would like to discuss my view on NSL.
This is an abusive act of which the international community demanded abolition for more than a decade. It is my basic right to freedom of thought to agree with international human rights groups which demands abolition of the McCarthyist law. A democracy must not make a harmless citizen peacefully expressing his/her own view a refugee. As a South Korean citizen, criticizing the bad law of my society comes first. I know North Korea has abusive laws of the simlar type. If I were born in North Korea, I would have been dragged to the labor camp after campaigning against its laws.
I am against NSL as a citizen of South Korea, and this is based on my conscience. If someone asks me why I do not campaign against abusive laws in North Korea, I would say I am against them, but no one has rights to question other people of their priority of interests. I admit my jokes about the law enforcement on Twitter after the police raid were a bit too much, but I still remain against NSL.
In a country where fierce debate is going on about abolition of death penalty, NSL is an old-fashioned draconian law that mentions DEATH 8 TIMES. I couldn't help disagreeing with this law, for the sake of universal human rights and freedom of thoughts and conscience.
No matter what sentence Your Honor would deliver, I am sure this will be a dramatically historic case in the development of South Korean democracy, in terms of its significance.
Park Jung-geun, Feb 5 2012.
*** I am really really glad this was my LAST translation of his letter from jail.
*** Translation: @LeaBruni
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