South Korean socialist jailed
Ilbung Choe, a South Korean socialist, publisher and political prisoner since October 1992, was not among thousands of people granted amnesty by the South Korean government last month.
Choe, who had published a number of left-wing books and texts, was charged under the McCarthyite National Security Law with "anti-state crime", meaning mere expression of radical beliefs. On January 7, he was sentenced to two years' imprisonment. He remains in jail because he is a socialist. The February 24 "general" amnesty did not apply to "socialists and rapists".