By Sunny Lee
Korea Times Correspondent
BEIJING ― A renowned Chinese scholar was arrested for spying for a South Korean intelligence body, Hong Kong's Mingpao News reported Thursday.
Jin Xide, 55, a researcher with China's top state-owned think tank, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), "reportedly received bribes from a South Korean intelligence agent in the form of money and sexual favors and, in turn, provided classified information to him," it said.
The newspaper said the information he gave to the South Korean agent was about North Korea, without providing specifics.
Jin, a native of China's northeastern Jilin Province, is of Korean heritage. Trained as a specialist in international politics, he was a popular commentator on North Korean nuclear issues and Sino-Japanese relations.
According to Mingpao, Jin was detained around Lunar New Year and is now undergoing legal procedures. It's unclear whether he will be prosecuted for "spying" or "leaking classified information," it said.
Jin recently participated in a forum on China's relations with neighboring countries hosted by major Chinese Web portal Xinlang.
On Tuesday, Japan's Asahi Shimbun said "a top Chinese expert on East Asian affairs was arrested at the end of last month for leaking North Korea-related classified information to the South Korean intelligence body."
On Wednesday, Japanese newspaper Sankei said that Jin was detained for "leaking secret information on the health of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il to the South Korean side."
A report from Yonhap news agency appeared to dispute the Japanese reports. "Although the CASS scholar in question is a Chinese with Korean heritage, he has nothing to do with the South Korean government," it cited a diplomatic source - apparently a Chinese government official - as saying.
Citing another anonymous source, Yonhap alluded that it was, in fact, the Japanese intelligence agency that was leaking "false information" to the Japanese media in an effort to "whitewash" the fact that Jin had been actually in contact with the Japanese spy agency.
Concerning Jin's custody, China's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told reporters, Thursday, "I have seen this report, but I've not heard of this incident."
Quoting a source close to the detained scholar, Reuters also said Thursday that Jin's arrest came after he spoke about the health of Kim Jong-il in January, adding Jin's comment on Kim Jong-il's health was made publicly.
China, the closet ideological ally of North Korea, often censors negative news on the North. For example, in 2004, Chinese authorities shut down prominent magazine "Strategy and Management" for carrying an article by economist Wang Zhongwen that strongly criticized the North Korean government and urged change in China-North Korea relations.
Jin is from Yanji City of the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture, bordering North Korea. After graduating from Yanbian University in 1985, he went to Japan and earned a doctorate in international politics at Tokyo University in 1994. In addition to his post with CASS, he was vice chief of the Chinese Association for Asia-Pacific Studies and an executive member of the Chinese Association for Japanese Studies.
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