South Korean for Drug Trafficker executed by China

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China has executed a South Korean national for drug trafficking, Beijing's foreign ministry said, the first time such a sentence has been carried out on a citizen of that country in almost a decade.

A court in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou "lawfully pronounced a verdict and executed the South Korean defendant... for drug trafficking" Friday, the foreign ministry said in a statement.

"When defendants of different nationalities commit crimes on Chinese territory, Chinese law shall be applied equally," it added.

An official from Seoul's foreign ministry told reporters Friday that "the death penalty was carried out today for a South Korean citizen who was sentenced to death for selling drugs in China."

Beijing said the individual, who Chinese officials named as Jiang -- which would be rendered Kang in Korean -- had had their "legitimate rights and interests" protected.

South Korea expressed "regret that the death penalty has been carried out against our citizen."

"The government has made multiple requests for reconsideration or postponement of the execution on humanitarian grounds through various channels since the death sentence was announced," the official said.

It is the first execution of a South Korean drug offender by China in nine years, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported.

The individual was arrested in China in 2014 in possession of 5 kilograms of methamphetamine, according to Yonhap.