A court in South Korea has sentenced 68-year-old Lee Yoon-seop to 14 months in jail for writing a poem in which he praised North Korea. 

The ruling was delivered on Monday by a court in Seoul, the Korea Herald reported. 

Mr Yoon-seop’s conviction falls under the National Security Act, which prohibits the expression of admiration for and promotion of “anti-government” entities, a category that includes North Korea.

The court said Mr Yoon-seop’s comments in the poem “continued to generate and disseminate a considerable amount of propaganda that glorified and praised the North.”

The poem, titled “Means of Unification,” served as a literary plea for the reunification of Korea, advocating for the entirety of the Korean peninsula to unite under North Korea’s socialist system. Mr Lee Yoon-seop fervently believes that this shift could serve as a remedy for the pervasive impoverishment that, in his perspective, plagued the capitalist dystopia that is being championed in South Korea.

In the verses of the poem, he articulated a vision where the adoption of North Korea’s socialist principles would bring about tangible improvements in the socio-economic fabric of a unified Korea.

His piece criticised the suicide epidemic ravaging South Korea. It argued that under the socialist system, fewer people would commit suicide or live in debt and the state would guarantee free housing, healthcare, and education.

The poem was published on a North Korean blog and was one of the winners of a poetry contest in the North in November 2016.

Mr Yoon-seop is not new to political persecution for his opinions. In 2013, he was jailed for a similar offence in the past. He posted a piece on the internet that praised the North Korean military in 2013.