More than 100 foreign fugitives hiding in Korea, police data shows
A hallway of cells at Cheonan Correctional Institution, Korea's only prison tasked with handling foreign inmates, in South Chungcheong Province, Aug. 6 / Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk
More than 100 foreign nationals wanted for crimes committed overseas are believed to be hiding in Korea, prompting police to strengthen cooperation with foreign law enforcement agencies to track them down and repatriate them.
According to data submitted by the National Police Agency (NPA) to Rep. Kim Joon-hwan's office on Tuesday, 110 foreign nationals wanted for crimes committed in their home countries or other countries had fled to Korea as of Aug. 12.
By nationality, China accounted for the largest share with 40 Interpol requests, or 36 percent, followed by Uzbekistan with 19 requests, Mongolia with 17 and Vietnam with 13. Most other cases involved nearby Asian countries, including Kazakhstan, Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Thailand and Japan.
By offense type, fraud was the most common charge with 47 cases, followed by an "other" category that included violations of child and youth protection laws, kidnapping, confinement and prostitution with 29 cases. Drug offenses accounted for seven cases, while theft, traffic law violations, injury and assault each accounted for five.
When Interpol requests cooperation, the NPA alerts the provincial police agency that has jurisdiction over the suspect's believed location to attempt an arrest. This year, the agency more than doubled its cooperation staff, from 22 to 64. The number of repatriations also nearly doubled, from 13 last year to 24 as of August this year.
Stronger domestic investigations raised the arrest rate for Korean criminals who fled overseas, as international cooperation operates on reciprocity.
Last month, the Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police arrested a Chinese man in his 50s and repatriated him. He committed robbery and murder in China in 1997, then entered Korea in 2017 and lived here as an undocumented immigrant.
Chinese authorities also tracked down Korean scam and voice phishing suspects who fled to China, repatriating 192 last year alone, a figure that stayed in the triple digits every year.
Such cooperation extended to protecting Korean nationals living overseas. The NPA repatriated 13 fugitives to Mongolia who had fled to Korea this year, a 330 percent jump in the arrest rate from 2025.
As cooperation between the two countries deepened, Mongolian police also grew more active in protecting Korean nationals there.
In February, a Korean national was assaulted in the capital city of Ulaanbaatar. When local police responded passively, the NPA demanded a new investigation and disciplinary action. Mongolian authorities then punished the assailant and removed the police chief from the post.
"It is a serious problem that directly threatens the safety of our citizens when fugitives who committed grave crimes abroad are hiding out in Korea," Kim said. "Police must expand personnel and budget dedicated to Interpol cooperation to meaningfully raise the arrest rate of fugitives."