N. Korea helping to probe crash in Singapore brothel district

SINGAPORE, Aug 28, AFP - The North Korean embassy is helping with investigations into a traffic incident involving one of its vehicles in the city-state’s brothel district, Singaporean officials said.

“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been in touch with the DPRK ambassador on this matter,” a ministry spokesman said in a statement issued late Friday.

“The DPRK ambassador has assured us that the DPRK embassy respected Singapore’s laws and would extend its full cooperation with the authorities in resolving the issue.”

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) is the North’s official name. Singapore police told AFP Saturday an investigation into the incident was still ongoing.

The traffic incident took place in the pre-dawn hours of Thursday in Geylang when a parked car was hit by the embassy vehicle, according to an earlier police statement.

“No one was in the stationary car, which suffered a slight dent at the rear,” the police statement said. Geylang is Singapore’s red light district, where prostitutes openly offer their services on pavements and in licensed brothels, with short-time motels scattered along the neighbourhood’s narrow streets and lanes. The incident follows a fatal hit-and-run case involving a former Romanian diplomat, Silviu Ionescu, who allegedly rammed an embassy car into three pedestrians last December, killing one of them, after a drinking binge. The Ionescu case caused a furore in the city-state, which demanded that he be brought to justice after fleeing Singapore.