Kim In-gyu, 42, an art teacher at Anmyon Middle School in Taean, South
Chuncheong province, had successfully argued in two previous trials that the
material should be considered art, but prosecutors kept appealing the case
until the Supreme Court found Mr. Kim partially guilty.
Mr. Kim's Web site included a nude picture of himself and his pregnant wife. He
made them accessible to his students in 2000 and was indicted on charges of
disseminating pornography in 2001. Lower courts twice refused to convict him.
The Supreme Court's ruling said, "The intention of the person is not important
in deciding whether the material is against the law or not. The reactions of
those who see the material, and social norms should govern the material. We
decided that Mr. Kim's sexual pictures and drawings could offend those who see
them."
The court cited a 1995 precedent, in which Ma Kwang-soo, a Korean literature
professor at Yonsei University, was found guilty for publishing a novel
containing sexually explicit descriptions. In Mr. Ma's case, the Supreme Court
said, "To judge the healthiness of the material, we should consider how much
space the sexual contents take up in the book, and how lascivious it is."
Mr. Kim called the Supreme Court's decision "poor and shallow."
"I've been locked [up] in the past by the Supreme Court, which followed a case from 10 years ago. It seems the court does not want a change."
