A Korean-American man has been arrested on charges of lying about his activities on behalf of the South Korean government.
Park, 58, a lawful permanent resident of the United States, engaged in conduct in the United States on behalf of the South Korea by, among other things, obtaining information from officials of another foreign government and providing that information to South Korean officials in exchange for payment.
For example, during a recorded telephone call, Park relayed to a South Korean official working in Manhattan that officials of the other foreign government had asked Park to help them obtain certain items, including insecticides and anesthetics. However, the complaint alleges, on three occasions in 2005 and 2007, Park gave false information to FBI agents regarding his contacts with or knowledge of certain South Korean officials.
For example, on March 20, 2007, FBI agents showed Park photographs of certain South Korean officials working in Manhattan, and Park stated that he did not know two of the officials. Park then drove directly from that FBI interview to a restaurant in New Jersey, where he met with one of the South Korean officials he claimed not to know.
The difference between this case and the Robert Kim case was that here no classified US government information was passed to the South Korean government. However, lying to an US federal agent is a crime, and it looks like this guy will be going up the river for this.
19 Comments
Let me guess — the “other foreign government” is the DPRK.
so as far as mainstream US news readers know, prostitutes and spies come from Korea.
Dogbertt beat me to it, thought exactly the same thing.
Yeah, but, you know, lying’s not a big deal!
Chinese spies have been more detrimental to the US weapons industry.
That cannot be denied.
I’ll bet $100 in paypal account money that feeling is shared with the US public.
Well, if Chinese spies are worse than Korean ones then obviously the FBI should just drop this case.
Yes, the third country was North Korea:
I will say this in his defense, though — unlike Robert Kim, Park is a South Korean citizen, so I don’t necessarily blame him for passing on information to his government (lying to the FBI is a different matter), although I would throw him out of the country if it were proven he intended to traffic supplies to North Korea in violation of US laws.
Of course, that’s just my initial take. I’m sure we’ll get more information on all this later.
Sorry, here’s the link to that story quoted above:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/200.....pying_dc_3
This is probably a sign of a successful law enforcement effort. Exporting or transacting with Pyongyang would be a crime, but lying means they might have jumped the gun. perhaps the negotiations were unsuccessful, too, between the two parties. Anyway, the FBI information better not be Tim Russert’s testimony.
It doesn’t matter, Marmot, permanent residents are included in the list of people forbidden to export.
Now, if this scuttles other unrelated business, like FTA or military talks, in some bout of anti-Korean tit-for-tat, now that’s significant. But, Korean matters rarely make a peep in the States. As a matter of fact, if it scuttles FTA, Park would have done a service.
“For example, on March 20, 2007, FBI agents showed Park photographs of certain South Korean officials working in Manhattan, and Park stated that he did not know two of the officials. Park then drove directly from that FBI interview to a restaurant in New Jersey, where he met with one of the South Korean officials he claimed not to know.”
Didn’t take too much sleuthing to catch this dumbo. His shopping list of insecticides, anesthetics and veterinary products seems pretty harmless, albeit illegal. Can’t NK get this stuff from China a lot cheaper? Maybe they wanted samples to copy.
#11 -
“Maybe they wanted samples to copy.”
Benchmark, Sonagi. Benchmark.
#12 beat me to it.
“Can’t NK get this stuff from China a lot cheaper?”
Probably because they think made-in-USA is far more reliable.
Speaking of benchmarking, Ut Videam, I thought I would educate you with some American examples of benchmarking:
http://findarticles.com/p/arti.....i_13790776
Now I’m not calling you a hypocrite, but…
Hey, you got some egg on your face.
Sounds to me like the FBI may have been trying to turn him into a double agent. Since that failed, they arrested him.
#15.
I don’t think the American style of benchmarking compares to North Korea’s, unless you want to claim that the North Mafia is ‘benchmarking’ US currency.
But hey, go ahead and continue to defend the North. I ain’t stopping you!
“Probably because they think made-in-USA is far more reliable.”
I thought about that later. It’s a sad day for Chinese exports when even the Norks don’t trust their goods.
I doubt anything will come of this. If this is all there is to the story, then I doubt anyone wants to see him go to jail, even the FBI. Just hold him for a while and scare the crap out of him to make him spill all the beans of everything he know about deals with NK (and especially everything he knows about the South Korean officials and what they were doing), and then slap him with a couple thousand dollar fine or a month in the pokey.
My prediction is that we won’t hear of this story again after a few days. Interesting though.
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