Jailed Dissident’s Case Viewed as Test for Roh : S. Korean’s Tale of Beatings Focuses Spotlight on Reforms

In Jae Keun nervously crosses her arms and frowns when she talks about radios. Police cranked up the volume on a radio, she says, to drown out the screams of her husband as he endured three weeks of beatings, electrical shocks and water torture.

In’s husband, political dissident Kim Keun Tae, described in his last courtroom appearance 2 1/2 years ago how he came to loathe the chatty voices of announcers who seemed to mock his maddening pain. He vowed to smash the first radio he saw upon leaving prison.

But that day does not appear to be coming soon.

Despite promises of human rights reform and political amnesty by the new government of President Roh Tae Woo, an estimated 300 to 400 political prisoners remain under lock and key, according to human rights advocates.

Symbolic Test

Kim’s case involves evidence of extraordinary abuse, and it has become a symbolic test of the government’s commitment to relaxing the authoritarianism practiced by Roh’s predecessor, former President Chun Doo Hwan.

The dissident’s allegations of torture gained widespread attention last October, when the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial honored him and his wife with its 1987 human rights award. The U.S. State Department and several international human rights groups have deemed credible his claims that the National Police Agency’s anti-Communist bureau tortured him in detention. So far, however, the government has shown no sign of contrition.

As recently as last month, authorities denied visas to a delegation from the Kennedy Memorial attempting to visit Seoul to deliver the award to his wife. She had been prevented from traveling to Washington to attend an awards ceremony last November, just before the December presidential balloting in which Roh was elected by a plurality over opposition candidates.

In his inaugural address Feb. 25, Roh pledged that “the day when repressive force and torture in secret chambers were tolerated is over.” Yet Kim, 40, a former labor organizer and youth leader, was conspicuously passed over when the new president granted amnesty to 125 political prisoners the following day. So were 21 others on Amnesty International’s priority list of 24 prominent prisoners of conscience in South Korea.

7-Year Sentence

Kim was sentenced to seven years in prison in September, 1985, after being convicted of anti-government activities such as holding meetings of the National Youth Alliance for Democracy. The court has so far failed to hold a single hearing on Kim’s claim that he was forced to confess to crimes under torture. His wife, meanwhile, has lobbied for his release and organized family members of other jailed dissidents.

“The torturers walk the streets while my husband sits in prison,” In said in an interview. “If he were released now, he’d be in the spotlight, and the government doesn’t want that.”

Indeed, officials of Roh’s ruling Democratic Justice Party acknowledge that Kim’s case is so sensitive that authorities persuaded the Kennedy Memorial to postpone its visit until after today’s election for a National Assembly.

Representatives of the foundation, including two children of the late senator, are expected to deliver the prize to In in early May, but Kim’s release is not on the horizon.

“It would have a bad impact on the general elections,” said the Rev. Kim Kwan Suk, honorary president of the Christian Broadcasting System and a respected social critic. “Everybody believes he was tortured, and if he received amnesty, it would be an embarrassing situation for the government. He’d testify about his experience.”

Disclosures of the torture-killing of a student radical in January, 1987, unleashed much of the fury behind the massive demonstrations that forced Chun and Roh to agree to opposition demands for democratic reform. Five police officers were convicted of torture in the case and sentenced to three to five years in prison. Four of their superiors--including the head of the police agency--later received suspended sentences after being convicted on cover-up charges.

Hidden and Insidious

In said her husband’s torture cannot be easily compared to the killing of the student, however, because it was hidden and insidious, as she believes many other cases of politically motivated police abuse have been.

A high-ranking official of the ruling party, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Kim is being denied amnesty because his crimes were serious in nature--and because he has refused to express repentance. Also, a court investigation into the torture allegations is pending, he said.

In, a diminutive and soft-spoken woman, said she became so impatient with court inaction that she sued the presiding judge for criminal negligence on March 25. In a separate civil case, she has sued the government for 50 million won (about $68,000) in damages relating to her husband’s torture.

Information about Kim’s experience comes largely from testimony he gave at his trial, which was reconstructed from notes taken by defense lawyers and family members present in the courtroom. He said he was subjected to torture by electric shock and water, starting with his arrest Sept. 4, 1985, and up to his confession Sept. 25.

“They turned the radio up to maximum volume so that nobody could hear my screams,” he is quoted as saying. “During torture they stripped me naked, tied me to the torture rack and would hurl sexual insults at me,” he said. “They poured water on my head, chest and groin to help conduct the electricity into my body. Then came the electric shocks--at first, light and short, then stronger and longer; the electric shocks brought me within the shadow of death.

“My self-respect, my dignity and my faith in humanity have been destroyed,” Kim said.