That day the puppet Seoul Central District Court admitted the acquittal of Song Ji Yong who was suppressed by the Park Chung-Hee military fascist junta on charges of involvement in the Minjok Ilbo case.

As already known, the fascist junta closed the newspaper Minjok Ilbo on the suspicion of "founding Minjok Ilbo and sympathizing with the north's activities after receiving funds for operations from a suspected spy" in 1961. It arrested its manager Jo Yong Su, Song Ji Yong and other innocent persons over the case and sentenced them to death and life imprisonment on charges of violation of the "special law on punishing special criminals".

In 2006 the south Korean Committee for Settling the Past History for Truth and Reconciliation made a decision to probe the truth after defining the Minjok Ilbo case as suppression of a typical paper representing the call of the reformist circle in those days.

After the disclosure of the truth about the case in January 2008, the acquittal of Jo Yong Su who had been executed on a false charge was confirmed. In 2010 Yang Su Jong who was director of the editorial board was also declared not guilty.

The court admitted the acquittal of Song Ji Yong at a retrial. It held that the "special law on punishing special criminals" which the military forces invoked for punishment in those days had unconstitutional elements.