Korean national executed in China for drug trafficking

The Chinese national flag is seen in Beijing in this April 2020 file photo. Reuters-Yonhap

By Lee Hyo-jin

China executed a Korean man who had been convicted of drug trafficking, Friday, marking the first execution of a Korean national in nine years, according to Seoul's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

“We have been informed that a Korean national, who was sentenced to death on charges of drug trading, was executed today,” a senior foreign ministry official told reporters, without disclosing the man's identity.

The execution was carried out by Guangzhou Intermediate People's Court of Guangdong province, the second-lowest local people's court in China.

The sentence was enforced despite the Korean government's repeated requests through various channels to reconsider or postpone the execution, the official added, expressing regret on humanitarian grounds.

The man was arrested by the Chinese authorities in 2014 for possessing five kilograms of methamphetamine with the intent to distribute. He was sentenced to death by a local court in 2019 and an appeals court upheld the verdict in 2020.

Under China's law, people convicted of smuggling, distributing or producing over 50 grams of meth or heroin or over one kilogram of opium may face the death penalty or life imprisonment.

Friday's case marks the first execution of a Korean national in China since 2014, when four Koreans were executed for drug-related offenses.

The foreign ministry official, however, deemed the latest execution to be “unrelated to the current bilateral relations between Korea and China.”