A man in his 60s who won a poetry contest hosted by a North Korean propaganda website has been sentenced to prison on charges of violating the National Security Law.

According to legal sources, on November 27, Judge Lee Jong Min of the Seoul Central District Court sentenced Mr. A (age 68) to 1 year and 2 months in prison and ordered a one-year suspension of his qualifications for violating the National Security Law (gathering, communication, praise, and support).

Mr. A was indicted for sending an anti-state expression titled "Means of Unification" to the propaganda site Uriminzokkiri in September 2016 through circumvention access. In this piece, he claimed that if a North Korean-style socialist unification were achieved, there would be free housing, free education, and free medical care, and made statements such as "No need to search for a rental house," "No worries about employment," and "No one will commit suicide."

Furthermore, Mr. A incited, "The people in the North are already gathering and moving forward for unification, so let the people in the South also unite and move forward for unification."

In early 2016, when Uriminzokkiri announced a call for submissions for a literary competition, Mr. A emailed the administrator and submitted a piece to the site's reader contributions section. He was selected as the winner in November of the same year. It was later revealed that Mr. A had posted the same piece on South Korean internet sites.

Mr. A also wrote comments praising and supporting North Korean activities in response to articles related to the North Korean military published on a portal news site in 2013. There are also allegations that he reposted 72 pieces of expression on South Korean portal sites and blogs from 2014 to 2017.

It is known that Mr. A has a previous conviction under the National Security Law for praising and supporting crimes, for which he was sentenced to a total of 10 months in prison.

The court ruled that "During the probation period, the defendant consistently espoused North Korea's stance, creating and disseminating a significant volume of content that glorified and praised it, warranting a severe punishment." However, the court also took into account mitigating factors, such as the defendant's admission of guilt for all charges during the trial and the absence of any violent actions beyond posting. The court explained, "Given that the defendant did not engage in violent actions aimed at subverting or disrupting the established order, this was considered in determining the sentencing rationale."