A large number of foreign diplomats in South Korea seem reluctant to take responsibility for violating traffic laws and use their diplomatic immunity to avoid paying fines, a police report showed Sunday.
Russian diplomats were the worst offenders in terms of traffic violations in September, according to the report from the National Police Agency submitted to Rep. Kwon Young-se. They were slapped with 16 million won (US$17,140) in 214 cases.
Chinese diplomats received 121 tickets worth 8.7 million won.
American diplomats got 101 tickets worth 6.47 million won.
However, the Russian and Chinese embassies did not pay any of their fines, the report said. The Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Iranian embassies have also avoided paying.
British and French officials were also unresponsive to a large number of violations, while the U.S. and Japanese embassies were found to have claimed responsibility for over 50 percent of their tickets.
Vehicles registered with foreign missions receive immunity from search or seizure from the host country in accordance with the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, of which South Korea is a signatory.
Seoul, Nov. 12 (Yonhap News)
Many foreign embassies in S. Korea leave traffic fines unpaid |
