Kwon Pyong embarked on a more than 300-kilometre (186-mile) journey in August, when he crossed the Yellow Sea on a 1,800-cc jet ski from Shandong province, using binoculars and a compass to navigate and towing five barrels of fuel.
When his jet ski got stuck in tidal flats near South Korea's western port city of Incheon, he called for rescue and was taken into a detention centre, where he has been held awaiting a trial for illegal entry.
Kwon was an activist, who had posted pictures on social media mocking Chinese President Xi Jinping, and spent time in jail in China for subversion, said Lee Dae-seon, a South Korea-based human rights activist with Dialogue China.
Kwon decided to flee China, Lee said, because of Beijing's "surveillance" of his activities and because he expected further "political persecution".
On Thursday, the Incheon District Court convicted Kwon of an illegal entry and sentenced him to one year in prison suspended for two years -- which effectively put an end to his three-month-long detention.
"The defendant tried to enter the country without a permit and is also accused of dispensing waste into the sea," the court said in its ruling, according to Yonhap news agency.
The court said it gave him a suspended term as Kwon had not committed any previous offences in South Korea.
Kwon's father, who uses the Chinese style name Quan He, told the Guardian in an interview this week that his son "would die" if he was sent back to China.
"He came to South Korea seeking freedom and equality," the father told reporters after the verdict, Yonhap reported.
Kwon has also applied for refugee status in the South, and is awaiting the decision, rights activist Lee told AFP.
South Korea only grants a handful of refugees asylum each year.
Given Seoul's low acceptance rate, Kwon is also willing to seek refugee status in a third country such as Canada and the United States, Lee said.
The Chinese embassy in Seoul declined to comment when contacted by AFP.
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