The World - News from Aug. 21, 1989

An opposition member of South Korea’s National Assembly who is facing spy charges has told defense lawyers that he lied when he implicated his party boss, Kim Dae Jung, in a secret trip to North Korea, a party spokesman said. The spokesman said Suh Kyung Won, of Kim’s Party for Peace and Democracy, told his lawyers that he was forced to give false testimony to prosecutors that he had given Kim, a former presidential candidate, $10,000 out of funds received from North Korea. “Suh told his lawyers that he underwent five consecutive days of interrogation under extreme conditions in which he could not resist physically and mentally and was forced to give false testimony concerning Kim simply to escape the agony,” the spokesman said. A furious Kim said he will end cooperation with the government and threatened to organize street protests.