Prosecutors asked the Korea Immigration Service Thursday to deport California-resident Shin Eun-mi, who they say violated South Korea's anti-Pyongyang security law, which makes praising North Korea a crime.
Shin visits North Korea frequently and writes about her experiences for the South Korean news site, OhmyNews. She praised the country's beer and clean water, and wrote about North Korean defectors in South Korea who want to return to live under the Kim Jong Un regime.
According to AP, "Shin has said she had no intention of praising the country and was only expressing what she felt during her travels in North Korea."
Korea is still technically in a state of war after the Korean War ended in an armistice, and not a peace treaty. South Koreans can spend up to seven years in prison for violating the country's anti-Pyongyang security law, AP reports.
South Korean officials announced today that they are considering whether to deport Shin, though she announced in an OhmyNews article that she won't ever return to her "mother country" because it no longer wants her.