China welcomes ROK court decision on Chinese national

BEIJING  -- China on Thursday welcomed a decision made by a Republic of Korea (ROK) court to turn down a Japanese extradition request for a Chinese national who served a ten-month jail sentence for an arson attack on the Japanese embassy in Seoul.

"The Chinese side welcomes the result of the case," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said in response to a question from the media on the Seoul High Court's decision.

Liu Qiang, the Chinese national, has been properly arranged and will come back to China within days, according to the spokeswoman.

"The Chinese government attaches great importance to safeguarding Chinese citizens' security and legitimate rights," Hua said, adding that personnel from the Chinese embassy in the ROK had visited Liu several times and offered him necessary assistance within the limits of their responsibilities.

According to media reports, Liu has served ten months in a ROK prison for throwing Molotov cocktails at the Japanese Embassy in Seoul in January last year.

Japan had sought Liu's extradition in connection with a separate arson attack that caused minor damage at the Yasukuni war shrine in Tokyo in December 2011. The shrine honors WWII war criminals among the war dead.