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SEOUL: South Korea will deport Chinese nationals found guilty of attacking local protesters during the Olympic torch relay in Seoul over the weekend, the justice ministry said on Wednesday.
Police are trying to trace four Chinese after analysing video clips and photographs of violence during Sunday's relay, according to news reports.
A ministry spokesman, Kim Hae-Ung, said authorities would ferret out all those responsible for violent acts and "deal with them sternly under laws, regardless of their nationalities".
"The justice ministry, while fully respecting the friendly ties between South Korea and China, will sternly punish Chinese nationals who committed illegal acts," he quoted a ministry statement as saying.
"Stern punishment, including deportation, will be meted out under laws."
State prosecutors, police, foreign ministry officials and members of the National Intelligence Service met Tuesday to discuss the violence, which angered the South Korean government and people.
"Legal and diplomatic measures are necessary as the incident hurt national pride considerably," Prime Minister Han Seung-Soo told a cabinet meeting on Tuesday.
YTN television and other media said police were searching for four Chinese suspected of injuring Koreans who were protesting China's human rights record at the relay.
Police reportedly sent a team of investigators to the southeastern province of South Gyeongsang to arrest a Chinese student suspected of hurting a policeman during a clash in a hotel lobby at the end of the relay.
Another team was sent to Busan after a suspect in an attack during the start of the relay was found to be living in the southeastern city, news reports said.
Beijing said the Chinese supporters had been protecting the flame.
"Some Chinese students came out to safeguard the dignity of the torch. I believe that's natural," foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said Tuesday.
"Perhaps there were some radical actions, but we should recognise the real situation there," she added, while expressing condolences to injured Koreans.
The foreign ministry in Seoul had no immediate comment on her remarks.
- AFP/so
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