Roh Su-hui () is a South Korean

political activist A political movement is a collective attempt by a group of people to change government policy or social values. Political movements are usually in opposition to an element of the status quo, and are often associated with a certain ideology. Some t ...

who was arrested in 2012 for breaking the National Security Act.

Biography

Roh is the vice-chairman of the South Headquarters of the Pan-national Alliance for Korea's Reunification (Pomminryon). He was described by

NBC News NBC News is the news division of the American broadcast television network NBC. The division operates under NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, a division of NBCUniversal, which is, in turn, a subsidiary of Comcast. The news division's var ...

as "a leader of a South Korean group that has maintained friendly ties with North Korean groups".

Arrest

Roh was arrested in July 2012 after he returned from an unauthorized visit to

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu River, Y ...

, via the

Joint Security Area The Joint Security Area (JSA, often referred to as the Truce Village or Panmunjom) is the only portion of the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) where North Korea, North and South Korean forces stand face-to-face. The JSA is used by the two Ko ...

(JSA) in

Panmunjom Panmunjom, also known as Panmunjeom, now located in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea or Kaesong, North Hwanghae Province, North Korea, was a village just north of the ''de facto'' border between North and South Korea, where the 1953 Korean A ...

, where he called for the reunification of the two Koreas and bitterly criticized President

Lee Myung-bak Lee Myung-bak (; ; ; born 19 December 1941) is a South Korean businessman and politician who served as the 10th president of South Korea from 2008 to 2013. Before his presidency, he was the CEO of Hyundai Engineering and Construction, and the ma ...

of South Korea for his hard-line North Korea policy. At the JSA, he was sent off by a large group of North Korean civilians waving the flag of reunified Korea and carrying bouquets of flowers.

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film footage of the event showed Ro's approach to the border-line while a large group of South Korean security officials, South Korean Army personnel assigned to the Joint Security Area (JSA) and military policemen already awaiting his crossing in preparation for his arrest. Mere moments after crossing the border into South Korea, he was immediately seized and carried away (he had struggled against his captors), while the by-now furious North Koreans behind the border hurled insults at and fiercely protested the action. No North Korean border guards present intervened. He had entered North Korea via China in March for a memorial service marking the 100th day since the death of ruler

Kim Jong-il Kim Jong-il (; ; ; born Yuri Irsenovich Kim;, 16 February 1941 – 17 December 2011) was a North Korean politician who was the second supreme leader of North Korea from 1994 to 2011. He led North Korea from the 1994 death of his father Kim ...

. In February 2013, he was sentenced to four years in prison, and the Seoul Central District Court also ordered that his rights, such as

suffrage Suffrage, political franchise, or simply franchise, is the right to vote in representative democracy, public, political elections and referendums (although the term is sometimes used for any right to vote). In some languages, and occasionally i ...

, be stripped for three years after his release from prison. He was released from prison in July 2016. The

court ruling A court order is an official proclamation by a judge (or panel of judges) that defines the legal relationships between the parties to a hearing, a trial, an appeal or other court proceedings. Such ruling requires or authorizes the carrying out of ...

said "stern punishment is inevitable because omade a secret visit to North Korea without permission". Another activist, Won Jin-wook, received a three-year prison sentence for communicating with North Korean officials to arrange Ro's trip.

Reactions

The arrest of Roh was described by American-based

NK News NK News is an American subscription-based news website that provides stories and analysis about North Korea. Established in 2011, it is headquartered in Seoul, South Korea with reporters in Washington, D.C. and London. Reporting is based on infor ...

as "a clear but unnecessary propaganda victory" for

. An article in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' mused: "The arrest made a very small splash in the western

media Media may refer to: Communication * Media (communication), tools used to deliver information or data ** Advertising media, various media, content, buying and placement for advertising ** Broadcast media, communications delivered over mass el ...

, which comes as little surprise because a story with a warm North and a cold South doesn't square easily with the message that has been delivered by media outlets in Europe and the US for the last two decades." North Korea's state news agency said the "arrest has pushed the people in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea orth Koreainto fury" and described it as an abuse of human rights.

Notes

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