Song Du-yul, a Korean-German professor who was recently freed from jail after being given a suspended prison term for violating the National Security Laws, on Thursday departed for Germany.

The 59-year-old sociology professor at Munster University boarded a Lufthansa aircraft at Incheon International Airport, departing at 2:35 p.m. for Frankfurt.

He was accompanied by his wife and lawyer Kim Hyung-tae, who had helped Song with a legal battle at a district court and an appellate court in Seoul.

Before Song’s departure, some supporters gathered at the airport to bid him farewell.

Song decided to go back to Germany in order to give lectures for winter session classes, which he had postponed for almost a year in order to come to Korea last September, ending 37 years of exile for his alleged pro-Pyongyang activities.

Although a specific schedule for his return has not been made yet, he is expected to come back to Korea after finishing some postponed work in Germany, one of his aides said.

On July 21, the Seoul High court sentenced a suspended prison sentence to Song, acquitting him of key charges of violating the anti-communist security law for his pro-North Korean activities. He was allowed to leave Korea since the prosecution did not apply to have a travel ban imposed on the professor.

``Professor Song will return to Korea just as he came here of his own will last year,’’ his lawyer said in an interview with a local newspaper.

On Aug. 2 shortly after he was freed, Song paid tribute to those who fought and died for the nation’s democracy during the 1980 Kwangju Uprising at the national cemetery in Kwangju.

He also made a short trip to Cheju Island on Aug. 3 where he spent his childhood, visiting a cemetery for the victims of a massacre caused by ideological disputes back in the late 40s.

Song expressed his hope to visit Kwangju and Cheju in his last testimony for the appellate court ruling on July 30. ``I yearn to see the deep blue sea of Cheju and the mother earth of Kwangju which soothed my exhausted soul while I was staying overseas,’’ Song said.