Man gets one year in prison, suspended for three years
A Thai man who changed his name to evade a permanent ban on entering South Korea has received a suspended prison sentence, a court said Friday.
The Busan District Court sentenced the man, in his 40s, to one year in prison, suspended for three years, for violating the Immigration Act.
He had been deported in April for overstaying his permitted period of stay and permanently barred from reentering Korea.
About three months later, he changed his name, obtained a passport under the new name and returned to the country aboard a cruise ship from Shanghai.
The ship arrived at Busan Port on July 29. The man was permitted to go ashore in Busan for sightseeing during the ship’s port call, but failed to return before it departed at 7 p.m.
Instead, he traveled to Seoul, where he stayed until July 31 at an officetel, a mixed-use residential and office building, in Dongdaemun-gu.
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