[News Today] KOREAN JAILED IN CHINA FOR SPYING

[LEAD]
A KBS investigation has confirmed the detention of a South Korean national in China for nearly a year on espionage charges. This is the first arrest of a South Korean under the expanded 'revised counterespionage law'.

[REPORT]
A South Korean man in his 50s residing in Hefei, Anhui Province.

As a husband and a father of two girls, he had been working in China since 2016.

On a December morning last year, investigators from Hefei City's state security ministry stormed into his house.

Detained man's family/(VOICE MODIFIED)
He was sleeping in his pajamas. He was taken away in no time.

A notice of surveillance presented by the Chinese investigators at the time shows that he was suspected of espionage.

Without revealing detailed charges against him, Chinese investigators detained and questioned the South Korean in a hotel for five months. Even contact with his family was restricted.

Detained man's family/ (VOICE MODIFIED)
The investigations continued at the hotel. It can't be confirmed whether the questioning took place with basic human rights respected.

Chinese prosecutors took over his case from the Ministry of State Security in May and formally detained him.

He is reportedly charged under the revised counterespionage law that significantly broadens the definition of espionage.

He is the first South Korean national who has been detained under the revised law.

He has been in a detention center for five months.

His family says that he is not given medicine for his chronic diabetes.

Even in May, the South Korean embassy in China denied the fact that any South Korean national was detained for violating the counterespionage law.

In response to KBS' inquiry about the case and diplomatic efforts to have him released, the embassy changed its position and declined to comment.