FBI Arrests Man Reported to be "Korean Spy"

By Jorge Casuso and Constance Tillotson
Staff writers

Feb. 4 -- FBI agents arrested a 59-year-old Korean immigrant Tuesday afternoon after raiding a Santa Monica apartment under a sealed warrant that reportedly claims the suspect is under investigation for ``a national security issue.''

The FBI would only confirm that agents executed arrest and search warrants at a Santa Monica home at 3 p.m., but a television crew photographed the warrant, which was issued for John Joungwoong Yai at an apartment building at 909 Grant Avenue.

"Someone was taken into custody in Santa Monica," said Laura Bosley, a spokeswomen for the FBI in Los Angeles. "We did execute a search warrant there. Everything has been sealed with the court."

Bosley would not comment on reports that the suspect was under investigation for terrorist activities or that he was a North Korean spy.

But a source familiar with the investigation told The Lookout: "It's being reported he's a Korean spy. That's more accurate.

"You could classify it as national security, but it's not terrorism," the source said. "It's nothing having to do with terrorism. No one was going to blow up a building. There's no public safety threat whatsoever."

The Tudor-style apartment building where the suspect was taken into custody is owned by an older Korean couple who had moved into Unit 1 about eight months ago, said a neighbor who asked to remain anonymous.

"It was a couple in their sixties. I believe they were Korean," said the neighbor, who has lived down the block for 30 years. "I always saw them out watering their lawn, but I have never seen the younger man who was arrested."

Other neighbors also told reporters they had never seen the suspect.

According to the City's Rent Control Web site, no rent level was registered for Unit 1, an indication that the owner likely lived there. Rents for the other four apartment units ranged between $829 and $1,157 a month.

Shortly after the arrest was made, news mini vans swarmed the street outside the building just east of Lincoln Boulevard two blocks south of Pico Boulevard, as news helicopters circled overhead.