The Truth About Torture — Reposting a piece by Jeong Cheon-sik

Even without mentioning writer Rhyu Si-min,
it has been eyesore to see those who don't even know the basic definition of "torture"
mocking Rhyu Si-min as a traitor.
I am sharing a post by someone who pointed this out gracefully.
If it were me,
I would want to tell them to imagine
having 100 dental anesthesia needles stuck into their gums at once,
being stirred around, and having that repeated every 5 minutes all night long.
Reposted from Mr. Jeong Cheon-sik's Facebook.
I read a Facebook post claiming that in May 1980, when writer Rhyu Si-min was a university student, he was taken to the military intelligence agency (at the time, police and prosecutors were dispatched to the military intelligence, and a joint investigation headquarters was established) and that he was a degenerate who betrayed his fellow student activists and spilled everything.
Below is my reply to that.
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Do you all know what kind of horrific treatment people underwent at the military intelligence agency during the 5.18 uprising?
There is a saying that no one is a match for "whips" or "torture."
For example, suppose two comrades, A and B, are taken in for interrogation; their statements may differ in certain parts.
If A testifies about a person named "Gap," but B hides information and refuses to testify about "Gap," B will be subjected to extreme beatings, torture, and all sorts of verbal abuse.
At that time, manipulations were rampant, where even non-existent facts were fabricated to extract false confessions through torture.
That was only 35 years after being released from the shackles of Japanese colonial rule.
Up until then, the torture techniques used against patriotic activists during the Japanese colonial era had been passed down directly, and torture was practiced routinely.
Experienced interrogators do not conduct formal questioning on the first day of detention.
On the first day, they ruthlessly break them until they "soak their feet" or "wet themselves."
Formal interrogation begins the next day, and the result of the experience of pro-Japanese police from the Japanese colonial era—where they would say, "Since we broke them hard on the first day, they spilled everything"—was passed down through 35 years of time.
Furthermore, 1980 was a period of severe martial law, a time when torture was practiced quite brazenly and as if it were natural.
Because "Reds" were allowed to die.
Pastor Lim Ki-yun, who was detained at the Busan Intelligence Agency (commonly known as Samil Gongsa) during the 1980 martial law period like writer Rhyu Si-min, lost his life due to torture.
A few years ago, a retrial was requested, and a verdict was obtained stating that he died due to harsh treatment caused by torture.
Martyr Park Jong-chol also lost his life to torture seven years after 1980.
During the 5.18 era, those in the student movement were treated as "Reds," and the interrogators would openly shout, "I wouldn't even blink an eye if someone like you died."
Moreover, these people were kicked out of schools or workplaces and suffered great economic hardship.
Even back then, to get a job at a company (mostly large corporations), there was a background check, so those with a history of student activism faced disadvantages and even struggled to find employment.
And this was a barbaric era where countless people were either crippled or killed by torture.
A legendary story is passed down regarding the time when Seong Sam-mun, one of the Sayuksin (Six Martyred Ministers), was being tortured with branding irons.
There is a famous anecdote that when King Sejo, who usurped the throne, personally interrogated Seong Sam-mun and heated a branding iron in charcoal to sear his living flesh, Seong Sam-mun boldly shouted at Sejo, "This iron is cold; go heat it again."
By what right do you condemn Rhyu Si-min for betraying his comrades?
I want to ask you in return: do you have the confidence to endure such brutal torture and remain steadfast?
That is why it is an unwritten rule among those from the student movement that they never call a confession extracted through torture a "betrayal of comrades."
Watch your words!
After liberation, President Park Chung-hee was the head of the South Korean Labor Party organization within the national military.
Major Park Chung-hee, who was detained during a purge of South Korean Labor Party members in the military, was persuaded by General Paik Sun-yup—with whom he had built a friendship at the military academy established in Manchukuo, a puppet state of Imperial Japan—to confess the South Korean Labor Party organization; instead, he survived while all his other comrades were eliminated.
After General Park succeeded in the 5.16 coup, when Hwang Tae-seong, a close friend of Park's older brother Park Sang-hee and an ideological comrade, contacted him to meet as a special envoy from North Korea, Park did not meet him and instead had him killed.
Hwang Tae-seong was someone Park trusted and followed even more than his own brother and was an ideological comrade.
April 9, 1975, was the day eight activists for independent unification were executed, the day after their sentencing in the People's Revolutionary Party Reorganization Committee incident.
According to the testimony of the bereaved families who received the body of Mr. Lee Su-byeong, his body was blackened in several places due to electric shock torture.
If you search the internet, you can see the photos of the body released by Mr. Lee Su-byeong's family.
The Park Chung-hee regime seized the body and cremated it to destroy evidence of torture.
The People's Revolutionary Party Reorganization Committee incident was later ruled innocent in a retrial.
However, the dead cannot come back to life.
In addition, the remaining family members suffered all sorts of finger-pointing and disadvantages as "families of Reds" due to the system of guilt by association, and their children lived through great psychological and economic suffering, being excluded from employment.
However, no one who fabricated the incident was ever punished.
For several years now, I have been intensively studying the modern history of our country since the August 15 liberation.
The more I study, the more I realize how much I do not know.
I urge you all not to make hasty judgments without properly knowing this modern history.