The Wall Street Journal of 22 April reports a split ruling by South Korean administrative court regarding two SK military attorneys who were dishonorably discharged after they jointly challenged the defense ministry's efforts to protect the SK armed forces from economist Chang Ha-joon (author of Bad Samaritans) and polemicist Noam Chomsky.
The court ordered South Korea's army to reinstate one of the discharged lawyers, Ji Young-joon, citing his record and awards as a military attorney. However, it held the discharge of Park Ji-woong was warranted.
The plaintiffs, as Army colleagues, filed suit in October 2008 challenging the constitutionality of the Defense Ministry's ban on around two dozen books for members of the South Korean armed forces. That ban prohibited troops from possessing 23 books deemed "seditious" as pro-North Korea, anti-South Korea, anti-American or anti-capitalist. The list included Chomsky's 501: The Conquest Continues and What Uncle Sam Really Wants and Chang Ha-joon's Bad Samaritans, in which the Cambridge economist criticises free trade.
Ji and Park were dishonorably discharged in April last year, with South Korea's Constitutional Court reportedly about to rule on their suit in the near future. Following their discharge they took action in the administrative court seeking reinstatement.
