Korean-American Arrested for Pro-North Korean Remarks Deported
The Korean-American woman who went on a speaking tour in South Korea praising North Korea has now been deported:
A Korean-American woman was expelled from South Korea Saturday for making a series of pro-North Korean remarks during her on-stage talks shows in South Korea, Justice Ministry officials said.
Shin Eun-mi was put on Korean Air Flight KE011 leaving Seoul at 7:50 p.m. for Los Angeles after undergoing two hours of questioning by immigration officials. The expulsion bars her from entering South Korea for the next five years.
On Thursday, the 54-year-old was suspended of indictment after being accused of making comments sympathetic to the North Korean regime at talk shows she hosted in Seoul and other provincial cities in the past several months in violation of South Korea’s National Security Law.
The law bans any activities meant to praise, promote or propagandize North Korean ideals in the country.
“I feel like I was betrayed by my lover. It’s just like an one-sided love,” she told reporters right after receiving the expulsion order. “I leave here today, but the government cannot drive my heart loving the country out of my fatherland. I will continue to wish for peace and reunification of Korea.”
Since being sued by local conservative civic groups for alleged pro-North Korean remarks, she has said she is not a North Korean follower and her comments were all for the peaceful coexistence of the two Koreas. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link, but this case has drawn criticism that the National Security Law is being used to stop free speech in South Korea. In regards to this case I disagree because foreign citizens by law are not supposed to be involved in political activity in South Korea. So the next time she visits she should leave her politics back in California where it belongs.
