Seoul District Criminal Court sentenced Kim Ju-eon, former secretary general of the Citizens Alliance for Media Reform and current director of the Korean Journalism Foundation, to a six-month prison sentence for disseminating false information to deliberately damage the honor and credibility of the Chosun Ilbo. It also imposed a prison sentence on freelance writer and ex reporter for Media Today Kim Jong-bae for the same offence.

In 1998 the two attempted to discredit a story by a Chosun Ilbo reporter concerning the death of a nine-year-old boy, Lee Seung-bok at the hands of North Korean infiltrators in December 1968. The report quoted survivors of a village in Pyongchang County, Gangwon Province who said before the infiltrators killed Lee and his family the boy shouted, "I hate you communists." The legendary contents of the report were later incorporated into textbooks, and the family house became a small monument to anti-communism.

So-called pro North civic groups attempted to discredit the story in the early 90s and the two Kim's became the most vocally prominent, claiming the reporter had never even visited the area of the incident.

The court said the report was verified as true and it had confirmed the Chosun Ilbo reporter had visited the area, as villagers had come forward as witnesses, including Lee's elder brother, the only survivor of the massacre. It continued that considering the photographs taken there by Chosun Ilbo photographer Roh Hyung-wook and witness statements, it was undeniable that the reporter had covered the story at the scene.

(Lee Myung-jin, mjlee@chosun.com )