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# Researchers Raided by Police After Hosting Discussion on Korean Unification
- URL: https://movement.mymidnight.blog/researchers-raided-by-police-after-hosting-discussion-on-korean-unification/
- Published: 2026-09-17T16:49:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-28T16:51:32.000Z
- Description: Five researchers had their homes raided by police earlier this month, for the crime of reading material related to the unification of North and South Korea.
- Author: Joe Wilkins
- Tags: Repression

Five academics and researchers had their homes raided by Seoul Metropolitan Police officers earlier this month, for the crime of hosting a discussion group on academic material related to the unification of North and South Korea. 

The news was first reported [by *Tongil*](https://www.tongilnews.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=217533&ref=movement.mymidnight.blog), which notes that the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency’s Security Investigation Division obtained eight total search warrants for various scholars, including Lee Jeong-hoon, a former research fellow at the Unification Era Research Institute who appears to be in prison following a December 2025 jail sentence for [publishing research](https://en.news1.kr/northkorea/5841002?ref=movement.mymidnight.blog) related to North Korea. It isn't known whether any of the seven other scholars have been charged, though the investigation stems from suspicion that the reading group violated the Republic of Korea's National Security Act (NSA) of 1948, which functionally criminalizes speech related to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

In response to the raids, researchers and community groups penned an open letter of protest and inquiry, which demands an immediate end to the investigation and transparency around the weaponization of the NSA, *Tongil* reported. 

After submitting the letter to the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, signatories hosted a press conference on the police precinct's front steps. During the conference, the researchers' colleagues made it clear that the study group was organized to discuss material from the North Korea Data Center, an official government research division of South Korea's Ministry of Unification. In other words, the local police department in Seoul is raiding scholars for discussing documents released by the federal government.

The signatories to the letter of protest and inquiry include Son Jeong-mok, director of the Unification Era Research Institute, and Citizen's Action for the Abolition of the National Security Act, a grass roots organization which has been struggling for an end to [NSA abuse](https://peoplepower21.org/solidarity/737121?ref=movement.mymidnight.blog) since at least 2004.

**More on Korea:** [*In South Korea, the US military is at war with nature*](https://breakthroughnews.org/2026/09/02/in-south-korea-the-us-military-is-at-war-with-nature/?ref=movement.mymidnight.blog)