Confusion Erupts Over Arrest of Crime Suspects in Russia
By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter
The government issued a travel warning to Russia Thursday, following attacks on South Korean students there.
All of the country, except for the southern Kavkaz region, has been designated as a level 1 warning zone ``temporarily'' from March 11 to May 31, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said in a statement.
A level 1 travel warning advises tourists and visitors to take precautions while traveling.
Kavkaz remains as a level 3 restricted zone due to the possibility of terrorist activities in Chechnya.
Meanwhile, Russian police Wednesday denied remarks by the Russian ambassador to Seoul that two suspects of an attack on a South Korean student in Moscow Sunday have been arrested.
Ambassador Konstantin Vnukov said in a meeting with South Korea's Vice Foreign Minister Shin Kak-soo Tuesday that Russian police were questioning the suspects, according to a ministry official.
The Russian envoy was called in by Shin over repeated crimes on South Korean nationals in Russia.
The latest incident occurred when a 29-year-old student was heading home after parting from his friends. Two masked Russians attacked the man, leaving him critically wounded.
The incident came just a month after a 22-year-old South Korean student was killed in the Siberian city of Barnaul, the capital of the Altai region, after being beaten and stabbed in what was believed to be a racially motivated assault.
But police officials in Moscow denied Vnukov's remarks in a meeting with South Korean diplomats there a day later, a foreign ministry spokesman said Thursday.
"The Russian police said no suspects have been arrested, but that they have made montages of two suspects," the spokesman said.
The Russian Embassy in Seoul still insisted that the arrest had been confirmed, according to Yonhap News Agency.
"We checked again yesterday (Wednesday) with our foreign ministry in Moscow and confirmed that two suspects are in police custody," an embassy official was quoted as saying. "The police probably want to make sure they have the actual culprits before making any announcement."