Man with no license booked for driving Mongolian diplomatic car

By Kim Se-jeong Police have booked a man without physical detention for driving a vehicle belonging to the Mongolian Embassy in Seoul without a driver's license. Jungbu Police Station officials said Monday, the man, a Mongolian, 45, whose name was withheld, was driving a diplomatic car in central Seoul at around 9:30 a.m. on Friday. A policeman in a patrol vehicle saw the man throw a cigarette butt from the window, and stopped the driver to fine him for a misdemeanor. Asked to show his ID card, the man presented an ordinary passport, not a diplomat's passport. Asked to show his driver's license, he said he did not have one. Police found that the man had a record of drunk driving in Korea in 2004 and that his driver's license had been cancelled. The man told police he was an executive with MIAT Mongolian Airlines, Mongolia's national carrier. "He was a legal resident here, and he said that he was driving the diplomatic vehicle because he was given ‘a mission' by the embassy,'" a police officer said. Officials at the Mongolian Embassy were not available for comment. skim@koreatimes.co.kr,