By Park Si-soo
Staff Reporter
The number of crimes involving foreigners has risen sharply so far this year, the Justice Ministry said Monday.
About one third of the total were traffic violations, followed by felonies and fraud.
According to the statistics submitted by the Ministry of Justice to the National Assembly, the total number of crimes committed by foreign nationals reached a record high of 34,108 last year, nearly a three-fold increase from 12,821 in 2004.
In 2005, the number rose to 13,584 and surged to 17,379 the following year.
For the first seven months this year, 22,465 crimes by foreigners have already been processed, according to data. The authorities expected foreigners' crimes to exceed 40,000 for the first time this year.
During the seven-month period, no notable increase in the number of crimes by Koreans took place, the latest data from the Supreme Prosecutors' Office said. In 2004, Koreans were involved in around 2.08 million crimes and the number slightly decreased to 1.96 million in 2007.
While the number of foreigners committing crimes has increased, proportionally they commit fewer crimes than native Koreans.
In 2008, traffic rule violations were the most frequently reported type of crime with 7,289 cases, followed by felonies at 5,982, fraud at 3,390 and foreign currency rule violations at 1,557.
By nationality, the Chinese took the largest portion, followed by Mongolians, Americans, Vietnamese and Japanese, the report said.
In 2001, only 251 foreign nationals were convicted of felonies. But it jumped to 562 in 2007 and 821 in 2008. For the first eight months of the year, more than 1,000 foreign nationals were imprisoned on felony charges. Of them, 646 are from China, 120 from Taiwan, 31 from Mongolia, 24 from the United States and 21 from Vietnam.
"Immediate but systematic countermeasures are necessary to rein in the increase of foreign crimes," said a lawmaker.
pss@koreatimes.co.kr
