41 Years Later, The Spy Who Came Out From The Cold
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Woo Yong Gak. Kim Jae-Hwan--AFP for TIME
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Woo Yong Gak has firsthand knowledge of the dark side of South Korea's authoritarian past. Convicted of spying for North Korea in 1958, he spent the next four decades in a cell barely the size of a mattress, with little to do but "think and imagine." He ate alone, catching only a glimpse of other prisoners on the way to daily exercise sessions. During the 1970s, Seoul took a leaf from North Korea's book and started a campaign to pressure imprisoned Northerners to denounce Pyongyang. Jailers would bind Woo's hands and feet, then beat him with sticks, a thick rope or their fists. Determined not to scream, he ground his teeth together so hard he damaged the enamel. Later most of his teeth became infected and had to be removed. Says Woo: "If you looked like you couldn't take it, they beat you harder."
Last week, the 69-year-old Woo was savoring the end of his long nightmare. Before his release on Feb. 25, he was among the world's longest-serving political prisoners. On his first outing as a free man, Woo went to a park in Seoul to meet some of the human rights activists who campaigned on his behalf. It was a simple affair: there were speeches, a singer serenaded Woo and some of the 16 other political prisoners unconditionally freed with him.
For South Korea, the moment marked an important symbolic break with an ugly tradition. For decades, authoritarian regimes in South Korea used the threat of North Korean subversion to clamp down on dissent at home. The treatment meted out to Woo was typical: torture was common and prison conditions notoriously bad. Woo was indeed a spy. But he morphed into a political prisoner over the years: human rights groups pointed out he was treated brutally and kept in solitary simply because he refused to renounce his politics.
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