President Kim Dae-jung approved a sweeping amnesty Friday that freed 103 political prisoners who signed an oath to obey South Korea's laws, including one that makes it a crime to espouse communism.
The amnesty, which affects more than 7,000 people in and out of prison, will take effect Saturday, the 53rd anniversary of Korea's independence from Japanese colonial rule in 1945.South Korea has marked past anniversaries with similar pardons.
Missing from the list of those granted amnesty were an estimated 400 political prisoners, including 17 who have served 30 years or more behind bars, often in solitary confinement. They refused to sign the oath.
The 103 political prisoners who did vow to obey the law were among 2,174 inmates to be freed. Thirteen inmates will have their prison terms reduced, and 4,820 people will have their civil rights restored.
"The amnesty is aimed at achieving a grand national conciliation in the midst of a national economic crisis," Justice Minister Park Sang-chun said in a nationally televised news conference.
But human rights groups expressed disappointment, saying that many political prisoners chose to remain in jail rather than swear to obey draconian security laws as a prerequisite for release.
"The oath requires prisoners to respect the national security law - a law which is used frequently to jail people for exercising their freedom of expression," London-based Amnesty International said in a statement.
"Maintaining state security does not mean locking people up for having left-wing views or keeping them locked up because they refuse to accept a law which violates fundamental human rights," it said.
South Korea's largest human rights group, Minkahyup, also denounced the oath, saying that many political prisoners regard it as humiliating.
"How can they swear an oath to obey the very law against which they have fought? " Nam Kyu-sun, a Minkahyup spokeswoman, said.