Reports are still a bit doggy at this point, but depending on who you believe, Prof. Song Du-yul either confessed to being a member of the North Korean Politburo AND encouraging a South Korean exchange student in Germany to defect to North Korea OR he didn’t. Needless to say, the Chosun and the Joongang have jumped on Song like he was a Chongnyang-ni whore - I also direct you to the two papers’ editorials on Song here and here. The English language edition of the Chosun didn’t even bother to mention that Song’s lawyer claims that his client admitted neither membership in the North Korean Politburo nor a role in the 1986 defection to North Korea of Oh Gil-nam, and if the Korean language edition did, I must have missed it behind the mountain of scorn they are currently pouring upon the man. However, check out their roundup of Rep. Chung Hyung-keun’s (GNP - Pusan) briefing to reporters today - it’s ugly, and I don’t mean just slightly. I mean real fuckin’ ugly - Chung accused the man of everything from not being a real professor to opposing South Korea’s 1988 hosting of the Summer Olympic Games. The Joongang English edition carries the following condensed version of Chung’s briefing:
Mr. Song left South Korea in 1967 to study in Germany. He was banned from returning to South Korea in 1972 after he had launched an organization protesting the Park Chung Hee military regime.
Mr. Song joined the Workers’ Party in 1973, and until March 2003 he had traveled to the North 18 times, the lawmaker said. Mr. Song was ordered to coax South Korean students and scholars to support the North and received money from the North, Mr. Chung added.
Mr. Chung, citing the National Intelligence Service’s briefing, said that a North Korean agent in Germany persuaded Mr. Song to go to North Korea in 1973 via Moscow. Mr. Song entered the North in September 1973 and underwent ideological and espionage training for two weeks, the lawmaker said. At that time, Mr. Song also joined the North’s governing Workers’ Party.
During a 1991 trip to the North, Mr. Song met with Kim Il Sung, the North Korean leader, Mr. Chung said. Mr. Song reportedly told the intelligence service that he became aware of his heightened status in North Korea at that time.
At the time of Kim Il Sung’s funeral in 1994, a North Korean agent informed Mr. Song that he had been selected to attend the funeral under the name Kim Chul-su, according to the lawmaker. Mr. Song reportedly told the intelligence service that after seeing a report in the Rodong Shinmun newspaper during his trip, he became aware of his appointment to the Workers’ Party’s Politburo and his ranking of 23rd on the power list of the party.
Mr. Song allegedly received up to $150,000 from Pyeongyang from 1991 to 1995.
Mr. Song also admitted to urging Oh Gil-nam, a South Korean scholar in Germany, to defect to North Korea in 1986. Mr. Oh surrendered to South Korea in 1992, and the two scholars were cross-examined during the intelligence agency’s investigation.
Oh my - now that doesn’t sound very pretty, does it? Even the Hankyoreh doesn’t appear to be going to bat for the man, but then again, they’re taking enough shit (from three newspapers in particular) for a couple of KBS programs on Song that depicted the scholar as a pro-democracy activist who fell victim to ideological conflict - and KBS, as you know, is run by the former editor-in-chief of the Hankyoreh. Unlike the Chosun, however, the Hankyoreh was kind enough to quote Kim Hyong-t’ae, Song’s lawyer, as saying that his client “never made any such statement” about being a member of the North Korean Politburo, and said that Oh Gil-nam himself has stated that Song never said directly the words attributed to him (i.e., “if I were you, I would reenter the North”). Anyway, the good professor/”pro-democracy” activist plans to explain his position today during a press conference at the Academy House in Suyu-ri, Seoul - and boy, does he have a lot of explaining to do.
BTW, let me just plug the Academy House’s Cafe Above the Clouds - it’s got an amazing view of Pukhan-san National Park, and IMHO it’s the best place to bring a date in the country.
Back to the topic at hand, I shouldn’t have to say that everything’s real sketchy at the moment - very few people know exactly what Song did or didn’t admit, and a lot of the other accusations surrounding the guy must be taken with a fair amount of skepticism (which is NOT to say they aren’t true, BTW). Still, it looking more and more like I owe Hwang Jang-yeop an apology - you’re still a goof-ball ex-Commie, Mr. Hwang, but apparently that doesn’t preclude you from being right.
BTW, the Korea Times quotes sources as saying:
Many aspects, including the relations between the South Korea and Germany, Song?s attitude shown in the investigation and reaction from the nation?s nationalistic forces, will be considered when the prosecution decides if it will tae him to court as early as next week.
Don’t ask me what the fuck that means.
PS: I’m still processing press reports - there are tons of them (particularly at the Chosun, Song being very much a wet dream for their editorial staff), and most of them are not in my native language. So don’t view this post as conclusive.
