North Korean Defector Sentenced to 1 Year and 6 Months in Prison for Drug Use During Probation Period

Decision to Revoke Suspended Sentence
Drug-Related North Korean Defectors Account for 64% of Inmates

[Asia Economy Reporter Jang Sehee] A North Korean defector who was sentenced to a suspended prison term for drug use was caught using drugs again and ultimately received a prison sentence.

According to the legal community on the 13th, Judge Shin Yong-mu of the Criminal Division 2 at the Seoul Eastern District Court recently accepted the prosecution's request and decided to revoke the suspended sentence of Mr. A (35).

Previously, Mr. A was indicted for purchasing and using methamphetamine and was sentenced in November last year to 1 year and 6 months in prison with a 3-year suspension.

Mr. A stated, "Due to the aftereffects of torture received in North Korea, I started taking narcotic painkillers." Later, in January of this year, before the probation period ended, he was caught using methamphetamine again.

Mr. A claimed, "I drank water from a bottled water bottle that I had collected along with my work clothes at the construction site where I was working, intending to throw it away, but it seems that the bottle was the same one I used to inhale methamphetamine before," but the court did not accept this claim.

The court pointed out, "The last date Mr. A used methamphetamine was March last year, and after being detained and tried, he was released on a suspended sentence. It is difficult to understand that the bottled water used at that time was stored for 10 months." The court also ruled, "Mr. A violated the probation conditions by reoffending during the probation period, and the severity of this violation is significant."

Meanwhile, according to data on the "Status of North Korean Defectors Detained Domestically" managed by the Ministry of Justice, as of August last year, among 175 detained North Korean defectors, 60 were incarcerated for drug-related offenses, accounting for 34% of the total. This is a much higher proportion compared to other serious crimes such as fraud and embezzlement (24 people) and murder and rape (17 people).

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.