South Korea’s spy agency arrested a leftist lawmaker accused of plotting a pro-North Korean rebellion in a case that has triggered a political and media firestorm in a nation where even praising the North can be considered a crime.
“It’s a fabrication by the National Intelligence Service,” Lee Seok-ki shouted on Thursday at a police station in Suwon, a city just south of Seoul, before being driven to a detention facility.
South Korean lawmakers voted Wednesday to lift Lee’s legislative immunity against arrest. It was the legislature’s first passage of such a motion over rebellion charges.
Lee, a first-time lawmaker from the small United Progressive Party, has long been hounded by claims he supports North Korea. He is accused by the spy agency of holding a secret meeting in May of about 130 party members and discussing strikes on crucial South Korean infrastructure targets should war break out between the Koreas. He allegedly believed that high tensions between the two countries this past spring could lead to war.
Lee has denied the allegations, accusing the spy service of staging a communist “witch hunt” to divert criticism of illegal online campaigning it allegedly conducted ahead of last December’s presidential election. Critics say Lee had little to back up the alleged plot, and note that past military-backed governments frequently used rebellion charges to suppress political critics.
“South Korea’s democracy is dying, and our country is becoming the republic of the National Intelligence Service,” Lee said after Wednesday’s vote, according to his party.
The spy agency can investigate Lee for up to 10 days before handing him over to prosecutors, according to Suwon District Court spokesman Lee Jung-won. He said the court issued an arrest warrant for the lawmaker because there were worries that he might destroy evidence or flee.