Yu Rak-jin, aged 70, is a former farmer, carpenter and geography teacher. He was arrested by the Agency for National Security and Planning (South Korea's intelligence service) in June 1994 on suspicion of belonging to an ''anti-state organization'' called National Front for the Salvation of the Fatherland (Kukukchonui). (He had already spent 19 years in prison on political charges before being released in 1990 in a presidential amnesty). During questioning, he said he was only allowed to sleep for one or two hours each night for 14 consecutive nights and that he was threatened by interrogators who tried to force him to make a confession. He was accused of belonging to Kukukchonui and sentenced to eight years' imprisonment. Yu Rak-jin suffers from angina and is currently thought to be in poor health. He was excluded from a prisoner amnesty last year because he refused to sign a ''law-abiding oath'' as a precondition for release. (Signing would have implied respect for the National Security Law under which he had been sentenced and imprisoned unfairly).

Please send letters, faxes or e-mails to the South Korean President and Minister of Justice:

• State that Amnesty International believes Yu Rak-jin to be a prisoner of conscience. Call for his immediate and unconditional release.

• Register concern about Yu Rak-jin's poor state of health and urge the government to provide him with appropriate medical treatment pending his release.

• Call for an immediate halt to human rights abuses under the National Security Law, and for the Law to be amended in line with international human rights standards or abolished.
  

Addresses:

President Kim Dae-jung The Blue House 1 Sejong-no, Chongno-gu Seoul Republic of Korea Fax: (82 2) 770 0253/0344 e-mail: webmaster@cwd.go.kr

Mr Park Sang-cheon Minister of Justice Ministry of Justice 1 Chungang-dong Kwachon City Kyonggi Province Republic of Korea Fax: (82 2) 504 3337

Copies to: Mr Hong Sun-yong Minister of Foreign Affairs Ministry of Foreign Affairs 77 Sejong-no, Chongno-gu Seoul Republic of Korea Fax: (82 2) 720 2686

Please remember to copy your letter to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and diplomatic representatives of South Korea in your own country

Please also send cards or letters of support to Yu Rak-jin at the following address:

Yu Rak-jin (Prisoner No. 3562)
Taejon Prison
PO Box 136
Yusong Post Office,
Taejon-shi 305-600
Republic of Korea

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