Korean human rights activist arrested

Korean human rights activist arrested

South Korean human rights campaigner Noh Tae-hoon was illegally arrested on July 15 in his lawyer's office. He is being detained under the notorious National Security Law.

When an officer from the Security Division of the National Police Administration (a political police division) tried to arrest Noh on an incomplete arrest warrant, Noh's lawyer, Yong Whan-cho, intervened. Up to five more officers then entered the office, assaulted Yong and another lawyer, Baik Seung-hun, and forcibly arrested Noh.

The reason for his arrest is unknown because one of the omissions on the arrest warrant was a summary of charges (required under the Code of Criminal Procedure).

Since 1992 Noh has been working with former political prisoners to establish an organisation, Stop Torture in Korea. He was previously a secretary of the Association of Political Prisoners' Families.

Early this year, he became a secretary of KONUCH (Korean Non-government Organisations' Network for the World Conference on Human Rights), an umbrella organisation set up to represent major South Korean human rights NGOs at the recent conference in Vienna.

Noh's arbitrary arrest exposes the lack of real change under the new presidency of Kim Young-sam, an ex-dissident who has been hailed as South Korea's great reformer. Pillars of the "old order", such as the National Security Law which prescribes long prison sentences and the death penalty for anti-government activities, remain entrenched.

From GLW issue 109