(EDITORIAL from the Korea Herald on Sept. 22)

Detained in Singapore

Three South Korean nationals are awaiting trial in Singapore after being arrested
late last month on suspicion of working as drug couriers, a crime for which
conviction would carry the death penalty. According to the Korean mission in
Singapore, the three men, who are small-time businessmen from Busan, claim that
they were duped into the offense by a Nepalese drug trafficking ring which
conspired with another Korean, but it looks unlikely that they will avoid
punishment under the harsh narcotics control law of the city state.

The Singapore Health Science Authority is now analyzing the substance which was
allegedly hidden in the shoes the three men wore when they were arrested at
Changi Airport on the early morning of Aug. 30. Singapore's Central Narcotics
Bureau said the three South Koreans attempted to smuggle out two kilograms of No.
4 grade heroin. Under Schedule 2 of the Misuse of Drugs Act of Singapore, the
death penalty is mandatory for any person found in possession of more than 15
grams of heroin.
Korean nationals have been arrested and criminally charged in various countries
in growing numbers in recent years with the increase of international travelling
and business activities. More than 1,200 Koreans were in foreign jails as of the
end of 2008 for involvement in criminal cases. Some 120 Koreans are reported to
have been arrested on drug-related charges in as many as 17 foreign countries
since 2003. A 41-year-old Korean was executed in Harbin, China, in 2001, after
being convicted of drug trafficking. Yet, this is the first time that multiple
Koreans were arrested and faced capital punishment for a narcotics offense.
According to news reports, a man named Kim, 41, a real estate agent in Busan, was
offered by an acquaintance in Thailand a junket through Southeast Asia and
Australia in exchange for "a small errand." Kim recruited two friends to join him
on the pleasure trip and they were asked to inform the man in Thailand of the
sizes of their shoes. Arriving in Singapore on Aug. 28, they met a group of
Nepalese who gave them new shoes which they said concealed microchips loaded with
some business secrets. They were arrested as they arrived at the airport to catch
a plane bound for Sydney. Singaporean authorities also arrested five Nepalese.
They will be indicted as soon as the drug analysis is completed, and trials in
Singapore's two-tier criminal procedures could last for up to a year. Singapore
is well-known for the world's highest per capita execution rate, which reached 13
per 1 million in the late 1990s. About a third of those executed were foreigners
or foreign residents, many of whom were convicted of drug-related charges.
The last execution of a foreign national in a drug case was that of Nguyen Van
Thuong, an Australian citizen of Vietnamese origin who was arrested in 2002 for
carrying packages of heroin to be delivered to Melbourne. He was hanged in
December 2005 despite appeals from the Australian prime minister, the Vatican,
Amnesty International and many other NGOs and prominent individuals.
The offense of the three Koreans may be claimed to be less serious considering
their assertion of unawareness of the nature of what was hidden in their shoes.
The Singaporean law presumes anyone in possession of narcotics to be trafficking
it and the defendant bears the burden of proof against this presumption. Korean
authorities are asked to help them in whatever means possible, including legal
aid. The government should strengthen public education about being involved in
criminal offenses during overseas travel, recklessly or inadvertently.