Police apprehend same Chinese pair again for spying near US military airfield

South Korean F-15K fighter jets and U.S. Air Force A-10 attack aircraft taxi down the runway at Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, March 8, 2023. Yonhap

Two Chinese nationals were apprehended by police on Wednesday for filming fighter jets near a U.S. airbase in South Korea. What makes this case more unusual is that they had been picked up doing the same thing — in the same area — just two days earlier.

According to the Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency, the U.S. Army reported the pair, whose names were not released, after spotting them taking photos near Osan Air Base, a major U.S. military installation in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province.

Police apprehended the two and confirmed they had been caught in the same area for the same thing on Monday.

At the time, police, in coordination with the National Intelligence Service and the Defense Counterintelligence Command, found no signs of espionage and closed the case just eight hours after the two were taken in.

A similar conclusion was reached in Wednesday’s incident. The two were reportedly released without charges after police determined no law had been broken, as they only photographed aircraft in the sky. Under current laws, taking photos of flying aircraft outside designated security zones is not a criminal offense.

This is not the first time Chinese nationals have been caught photographing military facilities in Korea. Earlier this month, two Chinese teenagers were booked on suspicion of illegally photographing fighter jets during takeoff and landing using cameras and smartphones.

They were caught by police in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, which is home to the Republic of Korea Air Force’s 10th Fighter Wing. The base plays a key role in defending the airspace over the Seoul metropolitan area by operating fighter jets including KF-5s.

Authorities later discovered the two Chinese teenagers took thousands of photos not only there but also at four major South Korean and U.S. military facilities, including Osan Air Base, Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek and the Air Force base in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province.

Police say one of the teenagers claimed his father works for China’s public security bureau.

F-4E fighter jets land during a retirement ceremony for the F-4 Phantom at an airfield of the 10th Fighter Wing in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, June 7, 2024. Korea Times file

Although no evidence has emerged to confirm involvement by the Chinese government, even if there had been, prosecution under espionage charges would be difficult in these cases.

Espionage is punishable by death, life imprisonment or at least seven years in prison in Korea — but only if the acts were carried out for the enemy. Under the law, that term refers exclusively to North Korea.

For a country to be legally recognized as an enemy state, it must be in a state of war with South Korea — a condition that applies only to North Korea, as the two Koreas are still technically at war since fighting in the 1950-53 Korean War ended with a ceasefire agreement and not a peace treaty.

This means that espionage on behalf of any other country, including China, is not subject to the same charge.

This loophole has left some experts puzzled.

“I don’t understand it,” Kim Yeoul-soo, a researcher at the Korea Institute for Military Affairs, told The Korea Times. “Most countries don’t specify a particular nation when it comes to espionage laws.”

He added that this legal gap is what allows Chinese nationals to avoid punishment for such acts. “Our laws are not keeping up, and that gap is creating opportunities for even more illicit activities.”

Calls to revise the espionage law gained traction last June, after it was revealed that a civilian worker at the Korea Defense Intelligence Command had leaked South Korean military secrets over a seven-year period after being recruited by an ethnic Korean of Chinese nationality.

The liberal Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) has taken a cautious stance on proposed revisions for expanding the scope of the espionage law from targeting only enemy states to including foreign countries more broadly, citing concerns that ambiguous definitions of “state secrets” and “military secrets” could lead to potential abuse.

On Tuesday, Rep. Kweon Seong-dong, the floor leader of the conservative People Power Party, urged the DPK to actively cooperate in passing the amendment.

In December, former President Yoon Suk Yeol cited the DPK’s opposition to the revisions as one of the reasons behind his declaration of martial law.

But the Constitutional Court later ruled that such a claim was unfounded, stating that the bill was still under review with alternative proposals under discussion, rather than being blocked outright by the DPK.