China has executed a South Korean national for drug trafficking, Beijing’s foreign ministry said, the first time in nearly a decade such punishment has been handed down to a citizen of that country.
A court in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou on Friday “legally sentenced and executed the South Korean defendant for drug trafficking”, the foreign ministry said in a statement.
It stated, “When defendants of different nationalities commit crimes on Chinese territory, Chinese law shall be applied equally.”
A Seoul foreign ministry official told reporters on Friday that “a South Korean citizen who was sentenced to death for selling drugs in China was executed today.”
Beijing said the man, whom Chinese authorities have named Jiang – who would be called Kang in Korean – had defended his “legitimate rights and interests”.