South Korea says 110 foreign fugitives hiding locally
AM730 · 2 SOURCES1 day ago2 MIN
Summary
South Korea’s National Police Agency has reported that 110 foreign fugitives who allegedly committed crimes abroad were hiding in South Korea as of August 12. Chinese nationals formed the largest group, with 40 people, or 36% of the total, followed by suspects from Uzbekistan, Mongolia and Vietnam. By alleged offence, fraud was the most common category, involving 47 people, ahead of child and youth protection law violations, kidnapping-related offences, illegal detention and prostitution-related crimes. The figures were submitted to lawmaker Kim Jun-hwan (김준환) of the Democratic Party, who said the issue poses a serious threat to public safety and called for more police staffing and budget
Key Points
- The National Police Agency submitted the latest figures to Democratic Party lawmaker Kim Jun-hwan’s office on Tuesday, with the data counted up to August 12.
- Of the 110 foreign fugitives, 40 were Chinese suspects sought through Interpol at the request of Chinese authorities, the largest national group recorded.
- The next largest groups were from Uzbekistan with 19, Mongolia with 17, and Vietnam with 13, with others from nearby Asian countries.
- Fraud accounted for 47 cases, while 29 others involved child and youth law violations, kidnapping, incitement, illegal detention or prostitution-related offences.
- South Korean police said Interpol alerts were passed to cooperation units at local police stations, while cross-border cooperation led to 192 fraud suspects being returned from China last year and 13 South Korean fugitives being sent back from Mongolia this year.
Why It Matters
For Hong Kong readers, the case shows how nearby jurisdictions are tightening cross-border policing against fraud and other transnational crimes that often move people and money across Asia. It also underlines the importance of police cooperation, extradition-style returns and intelligence sharing when suspects use another country as a hiding place after alleged offences abroad.