고문 공간으로서의 남영동 대공분실과 그 이용자들: 1985년의 김근태 씨 고문 사건을 중심으로

The NamyoungDong Anti-Communist Branch of the Korean National Security Headquarter was a building in central Seoul where the late democratic activist Kim Geun-tae was severely tortured for 22 days in September, 1985 for his acting role against military government. The purpose of this article is to examine who had built this building, how this building had come to be used for torture,and who had put people to torture in this building. In 1976, the NamyoungDong Branch was designed and constructed by Kim Swoo Geun, a prominent Korean architect, educator and publisher, who designed over 200 projects including ‘Freedom Center(1963)’, ‘Space Group Building(1971-1977)’ and ‘Olympic Main Stadium(1977)’. The 5th floor of this building was designed and used for brutal water and electric shock torture as interrogation methods in 1970s and 80s. Although there had been very few cases that North Korea had set secret agents since 1970, the policemen working in this building were under pressure that they had to arrest spies in order to be promoted. Sometimes these policemen were exposed to violence by their senior officers if they were not actively engaged in torturing people under suspicion. By investigating history and management of this building, we are able to realize that torture was not just irregular crimes committed by individual policemen but largely embedded works in administrative routines.