Jeong Myeong-seok Arrested in China

Jeong Myeong-seok (62), a Korean cult leader who allegedly raped female followers and embezzled public funds, was arrested in China earlier this month.

Hwang Chul-kyu, who is in charge of international crime cases in Ministry of Justice, announced on May 16 that, “Chinese police informed us that a man caught in Beijing on May 1 turned out to be Jeong Myeong-seok after comparing fingerprints.”

It has been eight years since he fled authorities in 1999 and lived as a fugitive in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Japan.

The Ministry of Justice asked Chinese authorities to extradite Jeong on November 30 of last year. Prior to the request, Interpol put Jeong on its most wanted list in December 2004.

Chinese police will interrogate him before he is extradited to Korea.

Mr. Hwang said, “China is investigating him over unspecified separate crimes that he committed in China and after the investigation, the extradition will proceed.”

needjung@donga.com