Japanese national Takayuki Noguchi has been deported from China after serving an eight-month jail sentence for smuggling two North Korean citizens out of China.

Frontier police in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region questioned Noguchi, 33, on December 10 for helping two immigrants from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) cross the Chinese border and go to Japan. He was taken into custody by Guangxi's Chongzuo Police Bureau on December 13.

It was not until June 25 that the Chongzuo Intermediate People's Court sentenced Noguchi to eight months and fined him 20,000 yuan (US$2,400). The defendant was given credit for time served, released last week and deported.

Investigators found that Noguchi had been paid 5 million yen (US$46,000) to take the two North Koreans from the northeastern coastal city of Dalian to Guangxi's capital, Nanning, where other people would assist them to cross the Chinese border to a third country. The two North Koreans were then taken to Japan.

Noguchi then left China and returned to his home country via Vietnam.

He was caught in Nanning when he made a second attempt to smuggle two more North Koreans out.

(China Daily August 18, 2004)