The South Korean government will award a medal to a prominent activist who claimed that he was tortured by the Chinese government earlier this year for his efforts to promote human rights there, the government said Tuesday.

Kim Young-hwan, a 49-year-old activist, has said that he was arrested in China in March for helping North Korean defectors there and was tortured by Chinese security officers during his 114-day detention. Beijing flatly denied the accusation.

During the Cabinet meeting presided over by President Lee Myung-bak, the government decided to give Kim the Order of Civil Merit "for his contribution to the promotion and protection of human rights in commemoration of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights," which falls on Dec. 10.

Kim, who now serves as a senior researcher for the Seoul-based civic group Network for North Korean Democracy and Human Rights was a former South Korean proponent of North Korea's guiding "juche" philosophy of self-reliance. (Yonhap News)