A Seoul court on Monday posthumously acquitted a man executed 50 years ago for allegedly attempting to rebuild an underground pro-North Korea organization in a retrial of the case.
The Seoul Eastern District Court found the late Kang Eul-seong not guilty on charges of violating the National Security Act, citing insufficient evidence.
Kang, a civilian military worker, was executed in 1976 after his arrest and torture by military counterintelligence authorities for allegedly attempting to reconstruct the Unification Revolutionary Party on alleged orders from North Korea in 1974.
The underground organization had been uncovered by South Korea's spy agency under then President Park Chung-hee's administration in 1968 and dismantled.
The court said it could not conclude that Kang praised or sympathized with anti-state activities for reading a paper published in North Korea.
