By Lee Kyung-min
The immigration authorities said Wednesday that they had detained a Vietnamese man who entered the country illegally last month.
According to the Ministry of Justice, the 25-year-old man, whose identity is being withheld, was apprehended in Daegu, at around 2:30 p.m., five days after he disappeared from Incheon International Airport, Jan. 29.
The authorities said he is suspected of having forcibly opened a door at an automatic immigration checkpoint at 7:24 a.m. No officials were present at the site.
He arrived in Korea from Hanoi, with a transfer flight scheduled to leave at 10:10 a.m. for Tokyo, Japan. The authorities noticed the illegal entry after Korean Air reported to them that he failed to show up for the flight’s departure.
Surveillance video footage showed the man leaving the airport terminal and walking toward the parking lot east of the terminal building.
The authorities questioned the Vietnamese community here following suspicions that he had possible ties to others settled here earlier.
They are investigating how he planned to come here and whether he had a help from a broker during the process.
The Korea Immigration Service will ask the prosecution to seek an arrest warrant for him on charges of violating the Immigration Law.