Photo/Illutration Sohn Myung-hong, right, holds a portrait of his late father, Yuh-yeong, while his mother, Boo Sin-hwa, looks on. (Hajimu Takeda)

OSAKA--It took decades, but family members of an ethnic Korean man who was falsely accused in South Korea of spying for North Korea and sentenced to death have finally been able to clear his name.

In the end, Sohn Yuh-yeong won a reprieve and served 17 years in prison before he was pardoned and released. He died in Japan in 2014 at the age of 84.

During the 1970s and ’80s when South Korea was under military rule, around 70 ethnic Koreans from Japan were imprisoned on grounds they were spying for Pyongyang.

And while subsequent South Korean presidents issued pardons and apologies, the family of the late Sohn Yuh-yeong felt that was not enough and waged a campaign in the nation’s courts to clear his name. 

According to Zainichi Kankoku Ryoshinshu Doyukai (Association of ethnic Korean prisoners of conscience in Japan), which backed the family’s efforts for a retrial, South Korea’s Supreme Court on Jan. 27 rejected an appeal by prosecutors, thereby finalizing a Seoul High Court ruling in October 2021 that found Sohn innocent of the charges against him.

The ruling concluded that Sohn was detained without an arrest warrant for 46 days by South Korea’s intelligence agency and tortured into confessing he was a North Korean spy. The high court ruled that the case against Sohn was fabricated.

Sohn, who ran his own business in Osaka, was detained while visiting Seoul in April 1981 to take part in a golf competition sponsored by the bank he had business dealings with.

He was held much like the other ethnic Koreans who were in South Korea at that time to study or on business.

Sohn was sentenced to death and the ruling was finalized in 1983.

However, it was later reduced to a prison term and Sohn won his freedom after South Korean President Kim Dae-jung issued a pardon in 1998. That allowed Sohn to return to Osaka. He had spent 17 years behind bars in South Korea.

Retrials for ethnic Koreans in Japan became possible from 2008 under President Roh Moo-hyun, but Sohn opted not to take that route, saying he felt South Korea should pass legislation to enable all political prisoners from Japan to receive compensation across the board.

But in 2017, three years after his death, Sohn’s widow, Boo Sin-hwa, 91, petitioned South Korean courts for a retrial.

On learning of the Supreme Court ruling, she said: “While I had hoped that his crime would be wiped clean from the record while I was still alive, so much time has passed that I do not feel any joy well up within me. I suffered continuously for 41 years.”

Sohn’s second son, Myung-hong, 63, added: “After my father was detained, ethnic Koreans who were our acquaintances began distancing themselves from us, most probably because they did not want to get caught up in similar problems. At that time, it was only our Japanese supporters who extended a helping hand. While the time that was lost will never be returned, I will never forget that feeling of gratitude.”

The Japan-based association for ethnic Koreans held as political prisoners in South Korea has so far won not guilty verdicts for 38 individuals, including Sohn.

Lee Chul, 73, the group leader who himself was imprisoned for 13 years in South Korean prisons, said there were still about 30 ethnic Koreans who have not been cleared of past suspicions of having spied for North Korea.

“This issue is still not over,” Lee said. “We are calling on all the candidates in the March South Korean presidential election to include in their campaign platforms a pledge to provide across-the-board compensation without having to go through the ordeal of a retrial.”

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