South Korea media held for trespassing into N. Korea envoy residence
SINGAPORE: Two South Korean media staff have been arrested for alleged illegal entry into the North Korean ambassador’s residence in Singapore, police said yesterday, days before the US and North’s leaders meet in the city-state.
The detained men work for South Korea’s national broadcaster, Korean Broadcasting System ( KBS) News, and were arrested on Thursday, said a police statement.
Some 3,000 journalists are expected to descend on Singapore for the historic summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Tuesday.
The two arrested men, aged 42 and 45, are accused of criminal trespass which carries a maximum penalty of three months in prison or a fine of Sg$1,500 ( US$1,100), or both.
Another two South Korean men, one who worked for KBS and a second who was a guide and interpreter for the group, are under investigation.
The police said that none of the KBS employees were accredited media in Singapore.
Police warned that journalists who break Singapore’s laws will “not be accredited, and thus will not be able to cover, the summit between the United States of America and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea)”.
Huge numbers of police will be deployed for the summit.
In 2015, a man was shot dead by police when he tried to crash through a security barrier near the Shangri- La Hotel, which had been hosting a security summit attended by then US defence secretary Ashton Carter.
Drugs were subsequently found inside the car and authorities ruled out terrorism. — AFP