Suh Sung

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Suh Sung (Korean: 서승; Hanja: 徐勝; born 3 April 1945) is a Korean professor, writer, and former political prisoner.

Early life and arrest[]

Suh was born on 3 April 1945 in Kyoto, Japan, to Zainichi Korean parents. He received his elementary and secondary school education in Japan, and graduated from Tokyo University of Education in March 1968. Suh then travelled to South Korea to continue his studies at the Graduate School of Sociology at Seoul National University, during the regime of Park Chung-hee.^[1]

On 18 April 1971, shortly after returning to South Korea from a trip to Japan to see his family, Suh was arrested under false pretenses of being a North Korean spy and sentenced to life imprisonment.^[2] While in custody and under heavy interrogation and torture, Suh lit himself on fire, but survived with severe burns to his face. Suh's sentenced was reduced to 20 years on 21 December 1988, and he was released on 28 February 1990, after being imprisoned for nearly 19 years.^[1]

Later career[]

Suh is currently Professor of International Studies at Ritsumeikan University in Japan. His autobiography Unbroken Spirits: Nineteen Years in South Korea's Gulag details his experience as a political prisoner.^[1]

References[]