South Korean held in Russia for spying did humanitarian, mission work, says aid group

Seoul: A South Korean missionary who has been arrested by Russia on spying charges was sent to do purely humanitarian and mission work and had no involvement in helping North Korean workers in the area to defect, the head of his Christian aid group said.

Reverend Lee Sun-gu, who leads the Love Rice Sharing Foundation based in the South Korean city of Incheon, also said the allegation of espionage against his missionary colleague was "totally absurd" and "completely untrue".

"He was a conscientious and deeply religious person" who was "appointed by the group to help migrant labourers, the poor and people in hardship," Lee told Reuters.

"Fifty percent of our work is aiding the needy and fifty percent of our work is mission. That's it," he said.

"It's totally absurd and I think it's some kind of a setup," Lee said, referring to the charge of espionage.

Russian state news agency TASS identified the man as Baek Kwang-soon, 53, and said it was the first case of a South Korean being arrested in Russia for alleged espionage. Separately, TASS in its English-language report used the name Baek Won-soon.

The South Korean Christian group's website lists Baek Kwang-soon as the head of its mission in Vladivostok.

TASS quoted law enforcement agencies as saying Baek had been detained in the far eastern city of Vladivostok before being transferred to Moscow for "investigative actions".

Lee said Kwang-soon is an alias Baek uses, as is customary among missionaries who work in certain countries.

Lee denied Baek or the group helped North Korean labourers in Russia to defect, as reported by South Korean news agency Yonhap, quoting an unnamed acquaintance.

"Not at all. We have no knowledge of such activities, and if we had known that's what he was doing, we would not have approved it. That kind of thing would put our missionaries at risk of arrest and being used for political purposes."

"Missionary Baek not only helped North Korean labourers but also migrant workers from other countries and the very poor and the needy in that country."

US and South Korean officials have raised concerns that Russia has accepted new groups of North Korean workers in defiance of a UN resolution amid a blossoming of ties between Moscow and Pyongyang.

A 2017 UN Security Council resolution required countries expel ​​North Korean workers by 2019 on the grounds that their labour was exploited to earn foreign currency for North Korea's banned nuclear and ballistic missile programmes. But thousands reportedly remain in China and Russia.

The Love Rice Sharing Foundation vets and appoints missionaries who are working in 69 countries around the world after they are recommended by different churches, Lee said. The group provides financial and material support to missionaries.

South Korea had 21,917 long-term missionaries working in 174 countries as of 2023, one of the highest numbers globally together with the United States and Brazil, according to surveys.

The South Korean government is communicating with Russia for the safe return of its national, a foreign ministry spokesperson told reporters on Tuesday.

Ties between Russia and South Korea have been increasingly strained by Moscow's growing relations with North Korea amid allegations that Pyongyang has supplied munitions for the war in Ukraine. Since the Ukraine war, South Korea has had a special travel advisory urging its citizens not to travel to Russia.