This picture taken and released on Feb 15, 2023 by the Vietnam News Agency shows South Korean and Vietnamese defendants at a trial for people smuggling in Danang. - AFP
HANOI (AFP): Vietnam has jailed four South Korean men for smuggling people into the country during the Covid-19 pandemic, police said Thursday (Feb 16).
Lee Kwan Yuong, 55, and Seo Yuong Jin, 50, were sentenced to 10 years in prison for "organising illegal entry into Vietnam", police in the central city of Danang said on their website.
Song Hong Sup and Kim Chang Gi were jailed for nine years and four-and-a-half years respectively by the court in Danang.
Vietnam largely closed its doors to the world in early 2020 to curb the spread of the coronavirus, with a very small number of foreign experts and skilled workers from authorised companies given permission to enter. It reopened in March last year.
State media said the men had used their companies to illegally bring in nearly 200 South Koreans.
Lee, former deputy chairman of the Association of South Korean People in central Vietnam, earned more than US$42,000 while Seo pocketed $3,600 from their services between December 2020 and March 2021, when they were arrested.
Fifteen Vietnamese men and women were jailed and five others, including one South Korean were given suspended sentences for the same charge.
Vietnam's authorities are examining several cases of wrongdoing during the pandemic period.
At least 100 officials and businesspeople were arrested in connection with a scandal involving the distribution of Covid-19 testing kits.
Thirty-seven people -- many of them senior diplomats and police -- have also been arrested in an investigation into the repatriation of Vietnamese nationals during the pandemic.
South Korea is the top foreign investor in Vietnam, with total registered capital of more than 81 billion dollars.
