UPDATE: 9:02am 14 Sept 2009: Korea Beat has translated an article from the Chosun Ilbo, throwing a few more stats into the fire. Of the 1,031 prisoners, exactly 25 are Americans; other English-speaking countries are not mentioned. Additionally, the languages spoken are different, and would seem to reflect better on the people being sent to prison:

At the beginning of this month the Ministry, in consideration of the increasing number of foreign prisoners, hired 15 guards with foreign language abilities for Daejeon Prison and Cheonan Teenagers’ Prison.

Five speak Chinese, three speak Vietnamese, two each speak Russian, Spanish, or Mongolian, and one speaks Thai.

- Original article below -

Well this is certainly a head-scratcher:

The number of foreign inmates in Korea recently surpassed 1,000, with more than 60 percent of them having Chinese nationality, government records showed yesterday.

According to the Justice Ministry, 1,031 foreign nationals from 36 countries were in Korean prisons at the end of June. The largest group came from China, totaling 667, followed by Taiwan with 125 and Mongolia with 32.

An additional 681 foreigners were detained while awaiting trial.

Presuming these numbers are accurate, of course, English-speaking foreigners are either A: not committing crimes; B: not being caught for said crimes; or C: being deported / sent home.

Wish they could publish some more detailed data, although it seems like a cheap shot to end the article on the following note:

The ministry last week assigned 15 correctional officers with foreign language proficiency to prisons where the foreigners are jailed, officials said.

The officers were chosen for English, Chinese, Vietnamese and Russian, they said.

© Chris Backe - 2009