September
23, 2008: South Korea has revealed that,
although it has practically no Moslems, it has arrested 74 foreigners as
terrorism suspects in the last five years. There were 19 separate
investigations. Most of the suspects were Moslems from South Asia or Southeast
Asia. Most were involved in collecting information on American military forces
in South Korea, or planning terror attacks against non-Koreans. Some Arabs have
been caught involved in criminal activities that were apparently to provide
funds for terrorists. Most of the suspects were expelled and returned to their
home countries, along with files on what the South Korea police had found.
These men were usually arrested when they arrived in their home countries, and
some of them were already known by counter-terrorism officials there.
South Korea
was long believed to be free of Islamic terrorist activities. The recent
revelations were intended to show that this was not the case, and that South
Korea intelligence and police agencies were on top of the situation.
