This is not good news for those trying to aid North Korean refugees:
A Thai court on Tuesday sentenced a South Korean pastor and his wife to a fine of 10,000 baht (US$315) and six months in jail, respectively, for helping North Korean defectors sneak into the Southeast Asian country.
The Chiang Rai District Court meted out the rulings to Oh Se-woo and his wife, Cho Bok-nyeo, who have been engaged in missionary activities in Thailand since 2002. [Yonhap]
Thailand has been threatening to crackdown on the defectors and send them home. However, they have been holding off on doing this and now appear to be focusing on going after those helping them instead.
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9:39 am on May 7th, 2008 1
this sucks big time north koreans and south koreans. the south korean government should find and deport all the illegal thai migrant workers in retaliation.
10:51 am on May 7th, 2008 2
According to the article, they were jailed for smuggling illegal aliens into the country. Funny how that is illegal in every country in the world.
12:49 pm on May 7th, 2008 3
Korea already deports illegal immigrants so the knee-jerk reaction is unnecessary. Anyways, Thailand has been a fairly neutral country and those two got off light…really, they got a fine that is equivalent to three full tanks of gas in Korea and being forced to endure sitting on the Gyeongbu Expressway for six months straight. So…come-on! Two wrongs do not make a right.