Top court posthumously clears South Korean man executed in 1960s for spying for North
Published: 25 Jun. 2025, 13:24
Updated: 25 Jun. 2025, 18:56
![Korea's Supreme Court in Seocho District, southern Seoul [NEWS1]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2025/06/25/bc16a0f1-672c-4e94-abfa-29c08503e319.jpg)
Korea's Supreme Court in Seocho District, southern Seoul [NEWS1]
The Supreme Court cleared a South Korean man who was executed in the 1960s after being wrongfully convicted of being a spy for North Korea, bringing an end to a decades-long legal fight to restore his name.
The court’s third division upheld a lower court’s acquittal of Oh Kyung-moo, who was executed in 1972 after being found guilty of violating the National Security Act and the Anti-Communism Act. The ruling was finalized on May 29.
Oh and his younger brother, Oh Kyung-dae, were arrested in 1966 after they illegally entered North Korea and returned to the South. Their half-brother, who lived in the North, had allegedly lured them across the border. South Korean authorities charged them with violating anti-espionage laws. In 1967, a court sentenced Kyung-moo to death and Kyung-dae to 15 years in prison.
Their younger sister, Oh Jung-shim, also received a suspended prison sentence for allegedly helping Kyung-moo despite knowing of his supposed espionage ties.
In October 2023, a Seoul district court ruled in a retrial that both Kyung-moo and Jung-shim were not guilty.
The court said it found “significant doubt” as to whether the defendants had been lawfully interrogated and stated that their confessions may have been extracted through coercion and illegal detention. The court excluded the confession as evidence, saying it had likely been obtained through unlawful means.
“This was an act driven by familial affection in a difficult era, and the entire family was punished harshly,” the court said. "We offer our condolences."
Prosecutors appealed the verdict, but the appeals court in August 2024 also acquitted Kyung-moo, finding no evidence that he had entered North Korea under orders from Pyongyang or with an intention to act on its behalf.
“There is no basis to believe the defendant went to North Korea under North Korean command or re-entered the South on an infiltration mission,” the appeals court said.
The Supreme Court dismissed a final appeal from prosecutors and confirmed the ruling.
Kyung-dae was acquitted in a separate retrial in November 2020 by the Seoul Central District Court.
Translated from the JoongAng Ilbo using generative AI and edited by Korea JoongAng Daily staff.
BY JANG GU-SEUL [[email protected]]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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