A conservative critic has been indicted without physical detention on charges of defaming pro-democracy fighters in a 1980 civil uprising, prosecutors said Friday.

The prosecution said Jee Man-won, 74, referred to four citizens who appear in a photo taken in the bloody crackdown in the city of Gwangju, 330km southwest of Seoul, in May 1980 as members of the North Korean army's special forces in a Web site post in June last year.

Tens of thousands of citizens rose up in Gwangju against the military junta led by Chun Doo-hwan, who seized power in a December 1979 coup. The government officially maintains that about 200 people were killed in the crackdown, though some put the estimate higher.

The four citizens pointed out by Jee, who attempted to connect the democratization movement with the North Korean regime, were pro-democracy activists, they said.

In a post in November 2014, Jee also allegedly called a group of activists from the Catholic Priests' Association for Justice affiliated with the Gwangju Diocese "communists disguised as priests."

The association and the four people filed libel suits against the critic in August and October, respectively. The suits, which were filed to the Gwanju District Prosecutors Office, have been sent to the Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office at the request of Jee, a resident of the South Korean capital. (Yonhap)