South Korean President Moon Jae-in, left, and his wife, Kim Jung-sook, second from left, in Japan for the G-20 summit, attend a meeting with Japan-born ethnic Koreans in Osaka on June 27. (Hajimu Takeda)

OSAKA--South Korean President Moon Jae-in apologized on June 27 to Japan-born ethnic Koreans who were falsely accused of being North Korean spies when his country was ruled by a military dictatorship in the 1970s and 1980s.

It was apparently the first time for a South Korean president to issue an apology over the government's treatment of the former political prisoners under the rule of the regime.

After arriving in Osaka to join the G-20 summit from June 28, Moon attended a meeting with about 400 Japan-born ethnic Koreans.

“As the president and as a representative of South Korea, I sincerely apologize to the victims among our compatriots and to their families, who were deeply hurt by the violence of the regime,” Moon said at the meeting.

Moon recognized the actions of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency (KCIA), which arrested, tortured and imprisoned many Japan-born ethnic Korean students in South Korea on trumped-up spy charges, as an abuse of rights.

Lee Cheol, 70, a Japan-born ethnic Korean living in Osaka, who was interrogated by the KCIA on suspicion of being a North Korean spy and sentenced to death, said, "As I had not expected the apology, I was really glad to have it."

Lee was studying in a university in Seoul in the 1970s when the KCIA arrested him.

He was later found not guilty at retrials in South Korea in 2015.

The KCIA rounded up as many as 160 ethnic Korean students and businesspeople on allegations of spying until the country's democratization in 1987, according to a citizens' group in South Korea.