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SKorea charges lawmaker with plotting rebellion
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South Korean prosecutors indicted a left-wing lawmaker yesterday on charges that he was plotting a pro-North Korea rebellion to overthrow the government, saying his plan posed a “grave” national security threat.
Lee Seok-ki, from the small United Progressive Party, was arrested by South Korea’s spy agency this month for allegedly discussing launching strikes on national infrastructure with colleagues in May in the event of a war with North Korea. The National Intelligence Service handed him over to prosecutors.
Lee has denied the allegation, saying the spy service fabricated the charges to divert criticism over claims that its agents posted online messages supporting the conservative ruling party candidate and now-President Park Geun-hye and smearing her main rival ahead of December’s presidential election.
The case has triggered a political and media firestorm in South Korea, with critics raising questions over whether there is substantial evidence to back up Lee’s alleged rebellion plot and noting that past military-backed governments often used rebellion charges to suppress political rivals.
North Korea angrily reacted to the scandal, calling it a “witch hunt” targeting those espousing greater reconciliation on the Korean Peninsula. North Korea last week cited the plot claim as an example of South Korea’s confrontational postures that saw it cancel this week’s planned reunions of families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War.
Senior prosecutor Kim Soo-Nam said yesterday that Lee and his colleagues brought up possible targets to attack, including a telecommunications facility in Seoul, during the May meeting, which drew 130 people. He said the plotters discussed using websites to find ways to manufacture firearms and bombs.
Kim said Lee believed that high tensions between the two Koreas this past spring would lead to war.
“It’s an incident that an underground revolutionary organization ... systemically and collectively plotted to overthrow a free democracy and posed a grave threat to South Korea’s national security,” Kim said.
Lee was indicted on two others charges — inciting a rebellion and praising North Korea in violation of South Korea’s anti-Pyongyang security law.
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