S. Korea weighs deportation of American

SEOUL, South Korea – South Korean officials said today they were considering whether to deport a Korean-American woman accused of praising rival North Korea during a recent lecture.

Prosecutors Thursday asked the Korea Immigration Service to deport California resident Shin Eun-mi after determining her comments violated South Korea’s anti-Pyongyang security law.

In South Korea, praising North Korea can be punished by up to seven years in prison.

Shin regularly posted stories about her trips to North Korea on a popular South Korean online news site. During a November lecture in Seoul, she said that many North Korean defectors living in South Korea had told her they want to go back home She also praised the taste of North Korean beer and the cleanliness of North Korea’s rivers.

Shin has said she had no intention of praising the country and was only expressing what she felt during her travels in North Korea.