Korean drug offender executed in China

The unidentified Korean was reportedly arrested in China in 2014 for the possession of a 5-kilogram meth. The last execution was in 2014 where four Korean drug offenders were executed.

Needles used in injecting meths that were confiscated by the Daejeon police in 2015. [YONHAP]

China has executed a Korean drug offender, nine years after the country's last execution of a Korean national.

According to Foreign Ministry officials, a Korean convicted in China for selling drugs was executed on Friday.

The ministry said that it tried numerous times through different routes to prevent the execution, including requesting the postponement of the date.

“For humanitarian reasons, we regret the execution of our own people,” a Foreign Ministry official said.

A Chinese court in Guangzhou approved the execution of the unidentified Korean, who was reportedly arrested in China in 2014 for the possession of 5 kilograms of meth.

The Korean was sentenced to death by both the lower court in 2019 and in the higher court in November 2020 before the Supreme Court made the final ruling this year.

To date, six Koreans have been executed. One drug offender was executed in 2001 followed by a Korean convicted for murder in 2004, and four drug offenders who were executed in 2014.

BY LEE HO-JEONG [lee.hojeong@joongang.co.kr]