South Korean man sentenced for retweeting North Korean posts

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SEOUL, South Korea—A South Korean man has received a suspended 10-month prison term for retweeting North Korean propaganda posts.

The Suwon District Court cited the National Security Law in its ruling Wednesday against Park Jeong-geun. The law prohibits praising and glorifying North Korea. Park could have received seven years in prison.

The court says it suspended the prison term partly because Park promised not to repeat his act. It says Twitter’s widespread influence over society is the reason Park’s actions threatened national security

The 24-year-old Park retweeted dozens of posts from North Korea’s Twitter account last year. He reportedly denies that he meant to praise Pyongyang and says he was only trying to lampoon North Korea.

Seoul and Pyongyang technically remain at war because their 1950-53 conflict ended with a truce.

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Tags: Cybercrime , North Korea , Social Media , South Korea , Twitter