A former Chinese police officer said Wednesday that physical abuse of criminals, especially Koreans, is rampant in the country.

The testimony by Lee Kyu-ho, an ethnic Korean, added fuel to the dispute over allegations that Kim Young-hwan, a South Korean activist, was tortured while detained in China.

“They do not take legal process and torture people who are deemed threatening to the Chinese government,” Lee said in a press conference.

Lee, 41, said he worked at a police substation in Shenyang near the southeastern border from 1995 to 2002.

Judging from his experience, he said, the claim by Kim is highly likely to be true.

He apologized after confessing that he also tortured North Korean defectors.

In 1996, he said he beat a North Korean man with an electric shock bat and heel kicks.

“I was outraged at China after hearing Kim’s remarks. Through this confession, I would like to ask North Korean defectors to forgive me,” he said. 

He also heard that electric torture and other harsh means were applied to suspects in violent crimes.

Lee was fired in 2002 and came to Korea in 2010. Since Feb. 28, he has been attending rallies in Seoul against China’s repatriation of North Korean defectors.

His remarks came amid an escalating dispute over Chinese investigators’ alleged torture of Kim, a North Korea human rights activist, during his 114-day confinement. He was released and deported on July 20 along with his three colleagues.

During the period, Kim said he was tortured with electricity, beaten on the face, deprived of sleep for a week and forced into 13 hours of daily labor.

Beijing denies any illegal practices.

Seoul appears to be toughening its stance, promising to assist Kim and his supporters’ plans to take the case to United Nations agencies.

Kim suspects that Pyongyang was “closely involved” in the arrest of the four activists who were supporting North Koreans in China seeking asylum in the South.

Pyongyang on Tuesday threatened to “punish the masterminds” behind what it called a state-ordered attempt to demolish a statue of its founding father, Kim Il-sung, in a border city.

Its official Korean Central Television said late last month that a North Korean named Chon Yong-chol claimed in a news conference that he was directed by a group of defectors and Seoul’s spy agency to blow up the bronze monument.

It demanded Seoul’s formal apology and punishment for Kim and other three South Koreans -- Cho Myung-chul, a North Korean defector and lawmaker of the ruling Saenuri Party; Kim Sung-min, representative of the Free North Korea Radio in Seoul; and Pak Sang-hak, head of the Federation of the Movement for Free North Korea.

Seoul rejected the claim, calling it “propaganda that’s not even worth responding to.”

Despite the North’s renewed threat, Kim and other activists and defectors pledged to continue their fight for democratization and human rights in the totalitarian country.

“The North appears to have named those it branded as the most problematic figures,” Kim Young-hwan said.

“It may have several purposes of mentioning our names but one could be to wither our activities. If our activities dwindle, that means we’ve fallen for North Korea’s scheme. We have no intention at all to do so.”

Cho appealed to defectors, other South Koreans and the international community to step up efforts to promote freedom, democracy and human rights in the North.

“We cannot condone this brazen claim for punishment against defectors by the very people who have built the unprecedentedly oppressive, economically deficient and anti-democratic country at a time when they should do more than atone for the grave sin,” he said in a statement.

A former professor at the elite Kim Il-sung University, Cho was exiled in 1994, then worked on cross-border economic cooperation at the Korea Institute International Economic Policy and served as director of the state-run Institute for Unification Education. He became Saenuri Party’s proportional representative in the April parliamentary elections.

(heeshin@heraldcorp.com)

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“중국, 한국 얕잡아보고 한국인 고문해”

중국 공안 출신이라고 밝힌 한 조선족이 1일 북 한인권운동가 김영환씨 고문 의혹과 관련 "중국 당국이 남북한을 얕잡아보고 남북한 사람에게 가혹행위를 하고 고문하는 것"이라고 주장했다.

1995년부터 2002년까지 중국 심양화평분국 서탑파출소에서 공안으로 근무했다고 밝힌 이규호(41)씨는 이날 오전 연합뉴스와 만나 "1996년 30대 후반에서 40대 초반으로 보이는 한 남성 탈북자를 색출해 조사하는 과정에서 발뒤굽으로 걷어차고 전기 방망이로 때렸다"고 말했다.

이 씨는 "파출소에 근무할 당시 단순한 시비와 취객 등으로 잡혀온 한국인에 대해서도 구류실에 넣고 발로 차고 때리기도 했다"며 "중국 공안은 강력범죄를 저지른 사람에 대해서는 중국사람, 남한사람, 북한사람 가리지 않고 가혹행위를 하고 양팔을 매단 상태에서 전기고문을 하기도 한다는 얘기도 들었다"고 주장했다.

2002년 중국 공안에서 강제해고 된 뒤 2010년에 한국으로 왔다는 그는 "올 2월2 8일부터 탈북자 강제북송 반대집회에 참석해왔다"며 "중국 당국이 김영환 씨를 고문 했다는 얘기를 듣고 분노했고 과거 행동에 대한 죄책감을 느껴 '양심선언'을 하게 됐다"고 밝혔다.

그는 이날 오후 서울 종로구 주한 중국대사관 앞에서 기자회견을 열고 이 같은 내용을 밝힐 예정이다.