Key Factors
- The jet ski rider is believed to be Chinese language rights activist Kwon Pyong.
- He travelled 300km earlier than calling for assist whereas caught at South Korea’s Incheon port.
- He was towing 5 barrels of gasoline and used a compass and binoculars to navigate.
A person believed to be a Chinese language rights activist has been arrested in South Korea after driving greater than 300km on a jet ski to get there.
Carrying a life vest and helmet, the person crossed the Yellow Sea from Shandong province on the 1800cc jet ski whereas towing 5 barrels of gasoline. He used binoculars and a compass to navigate.
South Korea-based campaigner Lee Dae-seon of NGO Dialogue China named the person as Kwon Pyong.
Kwon, 35, had posted photos on social media mocking Chinese language President Xi Jinping, and frolicked in jail in China for subversion, Lee instructed AFP on Tuesday.
“Whereas his technique of entry into South Korea in violation of the legislation was mistaken, surveillance of the Chinese language authorities and political persecution of Kwon since 2016 are behind his life-risking crossing into South Korea,” Lee stated.
“He’s now weighing whether or not to use for refugee standing in South Korea or select a 3rd nation,” he stated.
A launch from the South Korean coast guard stated: “He refilled the petrol on the trip and dumped the empty barrels into the ocean.”
When his jet ski acquired caught in tidal flats close to the western port metropolis of Incheon’s cruise terminal, he referred to as for rescue.
The coast guard stated the person, who they didn’t determine, was arrested after he “tried to smuggle himself into” Incheon. Authorities stated they discovered no signal the person was a spy.
South Korea solely grants a handful of refugees asylum every year.
The Chinese language embassy in Seoul declined to remark when contacted by AFP.
Human rights activists say China is stopping individuals from leaving
A report earlier this yr indicted that stopping them from leaving.
The report by the rights group Safeguard Defenders pointed to the instances of three Australian journalists in addition to “tens of 1000’s” of Chinese language who’re banned from exit at anybody time.
In 2020 the ABC’s Invoice Birtles and Australian Monetary Assessment’s Michael Smith had been banned from leaving China for a number of weeks in a case that concerned a tense diplomatic standoff between Beijing and Canberra.
Each males had been instructed they had been “individuals of curiosity in a case” that concerned disappeared Chinese language-born Australian journalist Cheng Lei.
