In South Korea, Preaching Peace Is Now a Deportable Offense

[unhappycamper]

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/28871-in-south-korea-preaching-peace-is-now-a-deportable-offense

In South Korea, Preaching Peace Is Now a Deportable Offense
Monday, 02 February 2015 11:18
By Hyun Lee, Foreign Policy in Focus

On January 10, after detaining her for questioning on charges of violating the National Security Law (NSL), South Korea deported US citizen Shin Eun-mi and barred her from returning to the country for the next five years.

For the past two months, the Korean American housewife had made daily headlines in South Korea after her speaking tour on her travels to North Korea sparked controversy and became the target of right-wing attacks. At one of the events, the detonation of a homemade bomb forced the evacuation of 200 people.

South Korean authorities interrogated Shin for more than 50 hours before deporting her. They also arrested activist Hwang Sun, who emceed the speaking tour.

“The gap caused by national division runs very deep in South Korean society,” says Shin. Indeed, the deportation of Shin and the arrest of Hwang follow on the heels of South Korea’s dissolution of the opposition Unified Progressive Party and growing concerns about an intensifying government crackdown on free speech. The South Korean Ministry of Justice recently announced that it will push to strengthen the controversial NSL to allow the Supreme Court to disband organizations it deems “anti-government.”