SEOUL, Oct. 2 (UPI) — China has arrested two Japanese nationals on charges of spying, and one of the two detainees is a North Korean defector.
The defector is a naturalized Japanese citizen who was arrested in Dandong, Liaoning province, near the North Korea border, the Asahi Shimbun reported on Friday. South Korean news agency Yonhap identified the man by his initial “A,” and said he is in his 50s and a resident of Kanagawa Prefecture near Tokyo.
The report follows an official announcement from Beijing Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei, who said on Wednesday China has two Japanese men in custody on spying charges, one in northern Liaoning province, and the other in coastal Zhejiang province.
The defector arrested in Liaoning province was born in Japan to an ethnic Korean father and a Japanese mother but was “repatriated” to North Korea in the 1960s with his family. He later defected in the 1990s and resettled in Japan in 2001 and was naturalized, according to the Asahi.
Defector “A” reportedly had close ties to North Korean defector organizations operating on the border, and visited the Dandong area at least once a month to meet with North Koreans and gather intelligence.
Security is high in the city of Dandong. In February, China detained a Canadian couple in the city on spying charges but later released them on bail.
The second Japanese national in custody was arrested after entering a military facility in Zhejiang province, the Mainichi Shimbun reported. The man, also in his 50s, was arrested in May, around the same time defector “A” was detained.
Japan’s chief Cabinet secretary did not comment on the cases this week, but denied Tokyo spies on China, or other foreign countries.
“Our country is not engaged in such activity,” Yoshihide Suga said on Wednesday, according to the BBC.
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