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* eotee CONFIDENTIAL Encl. No.

Desp. N 126

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From SEOUL

| majority of the MCI's directors because he was mich too radical -- even for the

reformist minded staff of the MI. Further, YI is known to have founded the
Democratic National Youth League in Pusan (which later spread to Seoul) and this
group was known to be the most radical organization publicly active. It is still
too early to determine a pattern in the handling of former reformist/leftists by
the military regime (in addition to the MCI trial, some minor menbers of the
Socialist Party have recently been tried and presumably others will be tried in
the future) but it has already become difficult to account for a certain lack of
consistency -- 8&8 demonstrated by the MCI case.

15. That the Minchok Ilbo and several if not all of those tried and convicted

‘vere leftists seems to be-generally accepted. Nor. would it be hard to believe from

the known facts about this newspapers’ line that certain-of those..convicted may
have been Commmist agents as has been alleged about YI Yong-kun. It is known
moreover that Chang Myon's government was all but so convinced after having in-
vestigated many of the defendants involved, and that this previous government was
prepared to indict presumably under the National Security Law, when the May coup
intervened.

16. Yet the character and political motivation of the defendants is probably
not the sensitive issue involved. Rather, what appears more delicately engaged
here is the question of law and justice, - and the press. That is - whether death
penalties were justified for crimes loosely defined in an ex post facto law, and
inconclusively prosecuted. And admitting that other cases have been similarly
tried ex post facto, and have similarly drawn the maximm penalty, the Minchok
Tlbo case is different from that of the hooligans, or the calculating criminals
of the Rhee regime. For this case involves the press, and with it the sensitivit-
4es and misguided sympathy of those who up-hold its freedom of information. It
is this aspect of the Minchok Ilbo case that can provide both a cause celebre
for misdirected intellectuals from abroad and a deep concern to legalists who
insist the punishment mst fit the crime. In this regard the Minchok Ilbo case
gives promise to have greater international impact than others tried to date.

For the Ambassador:

Dn ha L Kone

Do L. Ranard
Counselor of Embassy
Distribution: for Political Affairs

Amb/DCM
OIR/RAS
cas/K
J-2, USFK
G-2, EUSA
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- POL
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