SEOUL--South Korea's high court on Sept. 23 acquitted two South Korean residents of Japan who were convicted of spying for North Korea in the 1970s.
Kim Jong Sa, 56, of Chichibu, Saitama Prefecture, and Yu Song Sam, 57, who lives in Tokyo's Minato Ward, were found not guilty of clandestine activities in a retrial. They were released from jail in 1979, but have been fighting to clear their names.
The men, who were both residents in Japan and were staying in South Korea as college students in 1977, were subjected to water and electric torture after being detained by the military's intelligence unit. At the time, South Korea was ruled by a dictatorship.
They pleaded not guilty at their original trial, but were convicted of seeking state secrets.
The latest decision means that five South Korean residents of Japan detained in South Korea for political offenses in the 1970s and 1980s have now been found innocent.
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