Left wing pastor Han Sang Ryeol faces arrest when he returns from North Korea on or around 15th August, according to prosecutors.<\/p>\n
Han went to North Korea on June 12th via Beijing in defiance of a ban on his travel to the country issued by the Ministry of Unification in Seoul. He was due to attend a ceremony in commemoration of the tenth anniversary of the 2000 inter-Korean summit.<\/p>\n
Other than the Kaesong Industrial Complex and Mt. Geumgang tourist resort, South Koreans had been banned from visiting North Korea since May 24th in response to the sinking of the Cheonan on March 26th.<\/p>\n
According to an anonymous official in the prosecutor\u2019s office, \u201cSince Pastor Han, who did not have the approval of the Ministry of Unification for his trip to Pyongyang, remarked on June 22nd in a press conference that \u2018South Korea\u2019s government bears responsibility for the Cheonan situation,\u2019 he is being charged with aiding North Korea.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cThe final decision of the investigation into the illegality of Pastor Han\u2019s speech in North Korea is that it violated the National Security Law,\u201d the official continued, \u201cAs and when Pastor Han returns to South Korea, our policy is to arrest him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Han is a well-known left wing firebrand in South Korea, partly responsible for not only instigating protests against the presence of U.S. military in South Korea, but also demonstrations against the opening of the South Korean market to U.S. beef in 2008.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Left wing pastor Han Sang Ryeol faces arrest when he returns from North Korea on or around 15th August, according to prosecutors. Han went to North Korea on June 12th via Beijing in defiance of a ban on his travel to the country issued by the Ministry of Unification in Seoul. He was due to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":146,"featured_media":12836,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n