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‘Land of the flee’

March 7, 2014

According to Korea’s National Police Agency, 

one of four suspects fled to U.S. since 1990

A Korean American old-timer comedian Johnny Yune once joked that “if a politician commits a crime in America, he goes to jail. But if a politician commits a crime in Korea, he goes to America.”

As it turns out, there’s some truth to it, and it doesn’t just apply to politicians. According to Korea’s National Police Agency, there have been 3,132 recorded cases of runaway criminal suspects in 76 countries since 1990.

Of those, 726 — that’s 23.1 percent — were to the U.S., meaning that roughly one of four suspects fled to the anthem-proclaimed ‘land of the free.’

Next was China (678), followed by the Philippines (394), Thailand (238) and Japan (163).

Suspects of economic crimes such as embezzlement made up more than half of those who escaped to foreign countries at 1,941. Violent crime offenders numbered in at 252 and drug offenders at 133.

The agency said 998 suspects have been extradited back to Korea. With four more on the way from China on March 6, the count will increase to 1,002.

More effort will be put into bringing back the rest so they understand punishment doesn’t disappear after committing a crime leaving the country, police said.