A number of suspected Islamist extremists have turned up in Korea over the past few years, it emerged Tuesday.

According to a report on terrorist activities by the National Intelligence Service submitted to Uri Party Lawmaker Won Hye-young, one foreigner who was allegedly in contact with violent Islamist organizations in the former Soviet Union entered the country on a fake passport in November 2002 and worked for a small firm here before being rumbled and deported.

Nizar Nawar, the principal perpetrator of an April, 2002 suicide bombing at a synagogue in Tunisia, also lived in Korea for six months from September 1997 working in the factory of a small firm in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province.

In January 2003, another suspected terrorist entered the country on a Swedish passport but was also expelled. In March the same year, a Korean-American suspected of supporting a Southeast Asian terrorist organization was discovered.

In May 2004, a group of eight men with suspected links to a Southeast Asian terrorist organization were deported after intelligence suggested they were trying to build a cell in Korea. Last year an Arab organization in Korea was caught trying to make an illegal remittance of W60 billion (US$1=W952) overseas, leading to the imprisonment of some of its members. Illegal aliens attempting to incite anti-Americanism in the nation’s foreign worker population were also uncovered.

“Owing to various factors including our nation’s troop deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, Korea’s international role is growing, and domestic firms are expanding their push into foreign markets, so the threat of terror is becoming more real,” the report says.

“This confirms that our country is no longer safe from terrorism,” Won said. “All sides need to seriously look into enacting legislation to prevent terrorism.”

(englishnews@chosun.com )