by WorldTribune Staff, April 25, 2025 Real World News
For the second time in three days, the same pair of Chinese nationals on Wednesday were caught filming American fighter jets near a U.S. military installation in South Korea.
According to the Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency, the U.S. Army reported the pair, whose names were not released, after spotting them taking photos near Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province.
Osan Air Base / CC BY-SA 3.0Police apprehended the pair and confirmed they had been caught in the same area filming U.S. fighter jets on Monday.
On Monday, police in coordination with South Korea’s National Intelligence Service and the Defense Counterintelligence Command found no signs of espionage and closed the case just eight hours after the two were taken in, The Korea Times reported.
Authorities reached a similar conclusion in Wednesday’s incident. The two were reportedly released without charges after police determined no law had been broken, as they only photographed aircraft in the sky.
“Under current laws, taking photos of flying aircraft outside designated security zones is not a criminal offense,” The Korea Times noted.
Earlier this month, two Chinese teenagers were booked on suspicion of illegally photographing fighter jets during takeoff and landing using cameras and smartphones.
They were caught by police in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, which is home to the Republic of Korea Air Force’s 10th Fighter Wing, which plays a key role in defending the airspace over the Seoul metropolitan area.
Related: B-1B bombers arrive in northern Japan, putting North Korea on notice, April 22, 2025
Authorities later discovered the two Chinese teenagers took thousands of photos not only there but also at four major South Korean and U.S. military facilities, including Osan Air Base, Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, and the Air Force base in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province.
Police say one of the teenagers claimed his father works for China’s public security bureau.
Espionage is punishable by death, life imprisonment or at least seven years in prison in South Korea — but only if the acts were carried out for the enemy. Under the law, that term refers exclusively to North Korea.
For a country to be legally recognized as an enemy state, it must be in a state of war with South Korea — a condition that applies only to North Korea, as the two Koreas are still technically at war since fighting in the 1950-53 Korean War ended with a ceasefire agreement and not a peace treaty.
This loophole has left some experts puzzled.
“I don’t understand it,” Kim Yeoul-Soo, a researcher at the Korea Institute for Military Affairs, told The Korea Times. “Most countries don’t specify a particular nation when it comes to espionage laws.”
He added that this legal gap is what allows Chinese nationals to avoid punishment for such acts. “Our laws are not keeping up, and that gap is creating opportunities for even more illicit activities.”
Meanwhile, former South Korean President Moon Jae-In has been indicted on charges of bribery related to his former son-in-law’s job at an airline.
Prosecutors say Moon’s former son-in-law, identified only by his surname Seo, had little experience in the aviation industry but was hired in exchange for the airline’s CEO leading a state-funded agency.
Between 2018 and 2020, Seo received around 217 million won ($150,000) in salary and housing support – a sum that prosecutors say constitute bribes intended for Moon.
According to prosecutors, Seo was appointed “despite any relevant experience or qualifications in the airline industry”, said a Reuters report.
The Chosun Daily reported on Thursday that, under Moon’s administration, South Korea’s military manipulated inspection findings in 2018 to claim that North Korean guard posts in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) had been dismantled under a landmark inter-Korean military agreement aimed at easing border tensions, despite knowing that key underground facilities remained intact, the state audit agency found.
According to the Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI), the Joint Chiefs of Staff ordered soldiers who conducted on-site inspections to sign off on a falsified report that concluded the North’s guard posts were “disabled,” despite evidence to the contrary.
The deception was aimed at preserving the timeline for the military pact signed on Sept. 19, 2018, during the Moon Jae-in administration. To carry out the plan, the South Korean military is also suspected of misleading the United Nations Command (UNC), which oversees the DMZ, to secure approval for the guard post withdrawals.
The BAI has requested the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office investigate six former military officials, including former Defense Ministers Jeong Kyeong-Doo and Suh Wook. Prosecutors assigned the case to the Seoul Western District Prosecutors’ Office earlier this month.
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More security breaches in Korea; Chinese again caught spying on U.S. air base added by Editor Two on April 25, 2025
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