Russia detains a South Korean missionary on spy charges for the first time

Russia has taken a South Korean national into custody on espionage charges for the first time, adding to the strains between the two nations.

The South Korean man Baek Won-soon was detained in Vladivostok, Russia's official Tass news agency reported late Monday. A law enforcement official who was not named said Baek gave top secret information to foreign intelligence agencies, Tass reported, adding this is the first detention of its kind.

South Korean media reports said on Tuesday that Baek, 53, was a missionary who supported North Korean labourers based in Russia's Far East and was described as a "deeply religious" person who was also registered as the founder of a travel company based in Vladivostok, according to Tass. 

South Korean television network JTBC said Baek had travelled to Vladivostok from China earlier this year to carry out missionary work for North Korean workers in Russia, citing an unidentified acquaintance.

He was also involved in helping North Koreans to defect, Yonhap news agency quoted an unnamed acquaintance as saying. 

South Korea's foreign ministry said its consulate had been providing assistance since it became aware of the arrest. It declined to give more details as the matter was currently under investigation.

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

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

Friction between Russia and South Korea has risen in recent months as Seoul accused North Korea of shipping millions of rounds of artillery and ballistic missiles to Russia to help President Vladimir Putin in his assault on Ukraine.

In return, Russia has been sending North Korea food, raw materials and parts used in weapons manufacturing, South Korean Defense Minister Shin Wonsik told reporters last month. 

The food aid has helped North Korean leader Kim Jong Un stabilize prices for necessities, Shin said. He added that if the arms transfers expand, Russia could send more military technology to Kim, helping Pyongyang's ability to threaten the region.

Soon after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than two years ago, South Korea took the rare step of imposing export controls against Moscow, restricting purchases of items including semiconductors, computers, communications and navigation equipment. 

Seoul also joined other nations in blocking certain Russian banks from the SWIFT international payment system.

Russia supplied about 6 percent of South Korea's crude oil imports in 2021 before Putin's invasion, according to the US Energy Information Administration. South Korea hasn't imported Russian crude since November 2022, according to data from Korea National Oil Corp.

Bloomberg & Reuters