US missionary accused of smuggling N Koreans
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AN AMERICAN missionary of South Korean descent was arrested in Nong Khai on Monday for allegedly smuggling North Koreans into Thai territory and providing shelter for them.
Pol Colonel Panlop Suriyakul na Ayutthaya, chief of the Nong Khai Immigration Office, said police investigated a report that a ring helped North Koreans sneak into Thailand from Laos through Si Chiang Mai district.
They found five North Koreans detained at Si Chiang Mai Police Station.
Reviewing security footage of the arrest of the group, Panlop learned that the car used to transport the Koreans was rented by Isaac Byungdo Lee, 41.
Extending the investigation led to the arrest of the American suspect at his religious foundation in Chiang Mai’s Saraphi district.
Lee told police that he first came to Thailand in 1996 and opened the foundation. In June, he was contacted by Americans and asked to pick up two North Koreans. A South Korean man living in Vientiane was his contact.
However, when he went to meet them, there were seven of them, and six were women. He dropped five at the Si Chiang Mai Post Office in Nong Khai and the rest in Chiang Mai province. He claimed that he did not know he had violated the law.
After escaping from their |country, most North Korean refugees work in China to earn money before hiring traffickers to take them to Vietnam, Laos and then to the border provinces of Thailand.
From January to April, some 200 North Koreans slipped into Thailand through Nakhon Phanom. From April to August, 22 Koreans escaped via Nong Khai.
Panlop said all of them would surrender to police after arriving in Thailand.
They said they wanted to go to South Korea to join their families already there.
