Insurrection

Insurrection (내란/內亂) or rebellion means a refusal of obedience or order by acting for the purpose to destroy or take over an established authority or government.

In Korea such a crime of insurrection was more often than not invoked by the authoritarian government for political reasons in the 1970s and 1980s. For example, former President Kim Dae Jung was accused of the preparation and conspiracy for insurrection by then military rulers in 1980.

Statutory ground
Article 87 (Insurrection) of the Criminal Act
 * A person who creates a violence for the purpose of usurping the national territory or subverting the Constitution shall be punished according to the following classification:
 * 1. A ring leader (수괴/首魁) shall be punished by death, imprisonment for life or imprisonment without prison labor for life;
 * 2. A person (중요임무 종사자) who participates in a plot, or commands, or engages in other essential activities shall be punished by death, imprisonment for life, imprisonment or imprisonment without prison labor, for not less than five years; the same shall also apply to a person who has committed acts of killing, wounding, destroying or plundering; and
 * 3. A person (부화수행자/附和修行者, 단순관여자/單純關與者) who merely responds to the agitation and follows the lead of another or merely joins in the violence shall be punished by imprisonment or imprisonment without prison labor for not more than five years.

Article 88 (Homicide for Purpose of Insurrection)
 * A person who kills another for the purpose of usrping the antional territory, or subverting the Constitution shall be punished by death, imprisonment for life or imprisonment without prison labor for life.

Article 89 (Attempts)
 * Attempts to commit the crimes specified in the preceding two Articles shall be punished.

Article 90 (Preparations, Conspiracies, Agitation, or Propaganda)
 * (1) Anyone who prepares or conspires with intent to commit the crimes of Article 87 or 88 shall be punished by imprisonment, or imprisonment without prison labor for not less than three years, but when he denounces himself before the intended crime is committed, the punishment shall be mitigated or remitted.
 * (2) The preceding paragraph shall apply to a person who agitates or propagates the crimes specified in Article 87 or 88.

Article 91 (Definition of Subverting Constitution)
 * The purpose of subverting the Constitution in this Chapter shall mean those acts which fall within any one of the following subparagraphs:
 * 1. To extinguish the function of the Constitution or Acts without obseving the procedure provided by the Constitution or Acts; and
 * 2. To overthrow government organs established by the Constitution or to make render the exercise of their functions impossible by force.

Statute of limitations
The crime of insurrection, which could destroy the nation's constitutional order is beyond the statute of limitations in accordance with the Special Exemption Act as explained below on the occasion of the Chun Doo-hwan case.

Chun Doo-hwan case in 1995
When Kim Young-sam was inaugurated as President of the "Civilian Government" (문민정부) in 1993, he faced strong demands from the public to investigate and punish former Presidents Chun Doo-hwan and Roh Tae-woo. Under the previous Roh government, redefining the uprising as a "democratization movement," the National Assembly passed a law that allowed for victim compensation, and made Chun appear and testify in parliamentary hearings. However, these efforts did not alleviate the people’s demands for justice and a full inquiry into the two historical incidents.

In 1995, the Korean public kept pressing the government and the legislature to make a new law to punish the military leaders. Students demonstrated in the street demanding punishment of Chun and Roh. The newly revealed scandal that the two former presidents had amassed huge slush funds from bribes during their presidency made people even more infuriated. In response, President Kim directed his ruling party to enact new legislation and the National Assembly passed the Special Act Concerning the May 18 Democratization Movement in December 1995 (5.18 광주민주화운동 등에 관한 특별법). As a result, ex-generals Chun Doo-hwan, Roh Tae-woo, Chung Ho-yong, Chu Young-bok and Lee Hee-sung were punished on account of their engagement in 12.12 military coup of 1979 and 5.18 military oppression of Gwangju Uprising of 1980.

Finally in 1997, the Supreme Court held those accused were guilty of participating in insurrection conspiracy and homicide for purpose of insurrection. Supreme Court majority opinion said:
 * "the defendants grasped political power after they stopped the exercise of the authority of constitutional state institutions by mutiny and rebellion. Even if they had arguably ruled the State based on the Constitution which was revised by popular referendum, it should not be overlooked that a new legal order was established by mutiny and rebellion. It cannot be tolerated under any circumstances under our constitutional order to stop the exercise of the authority of constitutional state institutions and grasp political power by violence, not following democratic procedure. Therefore, the mutiny and rebellion can be punishable."

UPP case in 2013
The National Intelligence Service (NIS) investigated Unified Progressive Party (UPP 통합진보당) Representative Lee Seok-gi and other party officials on suspicion that the 51-year-old proportional representative and a group of hard-liners known as the Gyeonggi Dongbu Alliance had conspired to commit insurrection. Lee, who has two past convictions of anti-state activities, is immune from arrest as a legislator while the Assembly is in session. Lee is the first sitting lawmaker in Korean history to be charged with conspiracy to start an insurrection.

According to the press, the NIS began tracking down financial records of the suspects including Lee, trying to gather evidence to prove the suspects’ links to North Korea. The NIS concluded that an underground Revolutionary Organization (RO) inside the UPP has conducted nationwide activities for years. Lee was believed to be a leader of the organization, and he had ordered RO followers to prepare firearms for attacks on major infrastructure installations including telephone ficilities, Internet data centers or gas pipelines.

The NIS obtained warrants to investigate the suspects by presenting a transcript of a meeting of the Gyeonggi Dongbu Alliance that took place in early May 2013 in Seoul. At the meeting, Lee and 130 other participants, including two other UPP lawmakers, allegedly sang a North Korean military anthem, Red Flag Song. Lee was also accused of ordering the members at the meeting to make physical and technical preparations for wartime.