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According to the indictment Song, 59, visited North Korea more than 20 times, met the late leader Kim Il Sung in 1991 and rose to a senior position in the Politburo. He was also accused of received up to $100,000 in cash from Pyongyang. South Korea's national security law outlaws unauthorized contact with North Korea. Song, who grew up in South Korea and went to Germany in 1967 to study, became a key figure among Germany-based South Korean dissidents opposed to then-President Park Chung Hee's repressive military government in Seoul. The indictment comes nearly two months after the philosophy professor at Münster University returned to South Korea, ending 37 years of self-imposed exile. The prosecution has also accused Song of attempted fraud by filing a lawsuit seeking damages from Hwang Jang Yop, North Korea's most famous defector, who said Song was an alternate member of the Politburo under the name of Kim Chul Su. Hwang's accusation was deemed to be true, the prosecutors said. "We've decided to bring Song's case to court and keep him in custody because he failed to show remorse while being interrogated during detention," a prosecutor, Park Man, told Yonhap news agency. In a press statement Song's defense advisers denounced the application of what he called the "anachronistic National Security Law." The South Korean president, Roh Moo Hyun, who began his political career fighting military dictators, urged that tolerance be displayed in handling the case. Song has said he wanted to sever all ties with Pyongyang and give up his German citizenship so that he could remain in South Korea. Copyright © 2002 The International Herald Tribu |