The National Intelligence Service says the 1967 East Berlin incident involving the indictments of dissidents in Germany was not an espionage case as claimed by the Park Chung-hee government.

An official of the agency's truth commission said Wednesday that the dissidents suspected did visit the North and contacted North Korean officials through the North Korean embassy in East Berlin, but never committed espionage such as providing intelligence on the South.

In 1967, the then Korean Central Intelligence Agency charged that some 190 ethnic Korean artists, professors and doctors conducted espionage in East Berlin for North Korea, including the late composer Yun I-sang.

In the case also known as the Dongbaekrim incident, 34 were convicted of espionage and two received death sentences.