"The official announcement that Professor Tsche had confessed to being a [North Korean] spy and jumped to his death was a fabrication," said someone who had been a KCIA official at the time. "When he lost consciousness while being tortured, investigators mistook him for dead and pushed him off the fire exit" as part of a cover-up. Though it has been 31 years since his death, the witness sought forgiveness from the wrongfully deceased by revealing the truth, and his change of heart should be highly valued. His testimony bears witness to the ultimate truth that the truth does not stay hidden forever.

In the days of military dictatorship, unjust government authority trampled on the human rights of far too many and in some cases took people's lives. You shudder at the unrestrained power of the high and mighty intelligence agency and the immorality of its behavior, when it tortured an innocent intellectual to death and then labeled him a spy. How many people shed their blood to restore true democracy, to be free from the fear and live decent human lives!

There's a memorial stone engraving at SNU's College of Law and it says the following. "In times when one had to look at the moon and call it the sun, he died at the hands of immoral authority while speaking the truth and crying out for justice. He proved throughout his life that there is no justice without truth, no freedom without justice. What have you done today for human rights and justice in this land?" His death must be a living lesson for today.

The Hankyoreh, 19 March 2004.

[Translations by Seoul Selection. (PMS)]