The Supreme Court found a South Korean businessman guilty Wednesday of violating the National Security Law for writing a birthday greeting to North Korea's leader where he praised the communist regime and pledged to follow its policies.
The businessman working for a fisheries trading firm in Indonesia, which was jointly funded by the North, was indicted in August 2009 on charges of meeting a North Korean agent on several occasions and handing over information about South Korea.
A local court gave the 48-year-old Marine Corps veteran, surnamed Kim, a two-year prison term, suspended for three years, for giving the agent login information for Web sites of veterans' associations and a CD containing a South Korean map and a copy of a passport.
However, an appeals court found the businessman not guilty of some of the charges, saying writing and sending a birthday letter to the then-North Korean leader Kim Jong-il should be considered "simply a formality."
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court said the lower court's ruling misunderstood the anti-communist National Security Law, which bans any activities benefiting or praising the communist North.
"Sending a birthday letter that praises the Kim Jong-il regime and his policies is an act that could threaten (South Korea)'s existence, safety and the basic principle of free democracy," the court said in a ruling.
Kim Jong-il, who ruled the communist nation with an iron fist for 17 years, died in December 2011 and his youngest son, still in his 20s, has taken the helm of the impoverished nation with nuclear weapons.
The two Koreas remain technically at war after the 1950-53 Korea War ended in a truce, not a peace treaty. (Yonhap)