1979년 크리스챤 아카데미 사건을 통해 본 한국의 인권 문제

Abstract

The Christian Academy Case, which was announced to the media by the KCIA(Korean Central Intelligence Agency) on April 16, 1979, was a fabrication that accused Christian Academy assistant administrators of pro-communist based on possession of North Korean books and listening to North Korean broadcasts. KCIA took seven suspects into illegal detention for a long period of time, and tortured them severely to obtain false confessions. Shortly after the Christian Academy Case, religious groups, including the KNCC, condemned the Christian Academy Case as an act of suppressing labor and peasant movements and violating the freedom of Christian missionary work, and accused it of “human rights violations and religious oppression” through the international religious network. World church organizations and religious leaders were interested in the process of Korea’s trial of the Christian Academy Case and engaged in support and solidarity activities. They also sent messages of pressure to the presidential office of South Korea, the White House of the U.S. and the U.S. Congress to correct their unfair treatment of the case. One of the key targets of the Carter administration’s “human rights diplomacy” was the Park Chung-hee administration, and the Park Chung-hee administration’s oppressions on religious and social organizations, including the Christian Academy case, has intensified pressure on the U.S. to take measures to protect “human rights” against South Korea. The Christian Academy Case, the operation of the international network over the “human rights” issue, and the strengthening of the U.S. foreign policy on human rights have contributed to the collapse of the Yushin regime.