Sok Tal-yun, aged 60, is serving a life sentence in Chonju Prison on charges of meeting an alleged North Korean spy and passing military secrets to him. He was arrested on Chin Island on 21 August 1980 and taken to the headquarters of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency in Namsan, Seoul, the next day. According to his family he was held incommunicado for 47 days and tortured into making a confession. To Amnesty International’s knowledge the only other evidence produced in court, apart from the confession, was two notebooks containing the names and addresses of relatives and notes concerning his business. Access to legal counsel appears to have been denied during parts of the trial.
