The Cemetery of Patriotic Martyrs in Shinri, Pyongyang, where ‘5.18 War Heroes’ are said to be buried. Who exactly are the people buried here?

Some might call me presumptuous for a defector, but I feel compelled to express my frustration.

My physical condition prevents me from even fulfilling requests to deliver speeches at patriotic rallies, something my fellow patriots used to ask of me. Yet, yesterday, despite my ailments, I was summoned to the police station for another investigation. This is the third time. The 5.18 Foundation filed a complaint against me for violating the 5.18 related laws, citing writings I had previously published concerning the 5.18 incident.

The investigation concluded without any coercion. Now, I must await further investigation by the prosecution and a trial that could come at any moment. I am aware that in present-day South Korea, there are no prosecutors or courts that would acquit me.

However, I am not afraid. Still, this is a nerve-wracking and tedious wait. Whether I am imprisoned or fined, I just want this charade to end as soon as possible. It's even more exhausting considering the additional charge related to the fraudulent election case, also filed by the Democratic Party.

In North Korea, a country with the worst dictatorial society, I lived for 50 years without ever being summoned to a police station or court. Yet, here I am, in South Korea, facing such proceedings for merely writing a few words.

The thought that I am being persecuted in South Korea, a country I came to for freedom, for the "crime" of writing a few sentences, makes my twilight years rather ironic. I cannot shake the question of whether South Korea is truly a democratic nation with freedom of the press.

I clearly saw and heard things related to the 5.18 incident while in North Korea. May 1980 was during my second year of university. At that time, live broadcasts of protests were continuously shown on TV as news from the South. I saw scenes of the South Korean military apprehending protesters and scenes of tear gas being deployed.

I vividly remember hearing a male announcer with a Korean accent exclaim that the military had used bayonets to rip open the breasts of female university students and disembowel pregnant women, and I thought to myself, "These people are not human."

However, they only described these acts verbally, without showing the actual scenes of women's breasts being cut open or their stomachs being slashed. I questioned at the time why those scenes were not shown.

There is evidence that I actually saw and heard that TV broadcast. Because the male announcer at the time claimed that soldiers had disemboweled pregnant women and ripped open the breasts of female university students with bayonets, I wondered, "Does the South Korean military carry guns and also large knives like Japanese police officers?"

But when I came to South Korea, I learned that what they called a "bayonet" was actually a knife that could be attached to a gun, which in North Korean terminology is called a "gun bayonet." In other words, the term "bayonet" does not even exist in North Korea. They call it a "gun bayonet." I still wonder why a knife, at most about 30cm long, is called a bayonet.

And after coming to South Korea, there is no mention of any female university student dying from her breasts being cut off. There are also no pregnant women who were reportedly disemboweled. Then who was that male announcer speaking Korean at the time, and why did he tell such lies?

Jeonrado poet Jeong Jae-hak wrote in his essay, "After returning to school for the second semester, we confirmed that not a single friend we heard had died had actually died." So, where did those female university students who supposedly died with their breasts cut off go, and who were they?

And what about the 5.18 war heroes I saw in Pyongyang, who used to sit in the front row at the annual 5.18 memorial rallies in civilian clothes, and the graves of 5.18 heroes interred at the Patriotic Martyrs Cemetery in Pyongyang?

Upon arriving in South Korea, I found that there are so many truths related to 5.18 that are being concealed and need clarification. So, this ignorant defector, unaware that South Korea lacks freedom of the press, wrote a few articles about the issues that concerned me. Consequently, I was reported to the authorities without any explanation or clarification.

I was deceived. I believed the boasts of South Korea's democratization activists who claimed to have overthrown the dictatorships of Park Chung-hee and Chun Doo-hwan and achieved the nation's democratization, and foolishly, I simply wrote my thoughts down.

It was my ignorance that I did not know South Korea lacks freedom of the press. While acknowledging my ignorance, I am writing this article again. Someone once said there is no medicine to cure ignorance, and it seems to be true.

The citizens and government of South Korea, please answer the questions of this ignorant defector.

First: Is South Korea truly a country with freedom of the press?

Second: Why can't the list of 5.18 merit recipients and the numerous hidden truths of 5.18 be revealed?

Third: Why are citizens who question the state and social organizations, instead of receiving explanations, being treated as criminals?

One day, the time will come when these questions must be answered.

◆ Advisor Kim Tae-san

Advisor to the Hankyoreh Daily, former representative of a North Korean trading company in the Czech Republic. In South Korea, he has served as Vice President of the Institute for North Korean Society, offering deep insights and experience on inter-Korean relations and North Korean issues.