Founder of Clonaid, Entering S. Korea Denied

Claude Rael(56, picture) who is the founder of ‘Clonaid,’ a human cloning company that gave birth to the world`s first cloned babies, and also the leader of the Raelian Movement, a religious organization was denied entry to the country Saturday.

Rael arrived at the Inchon International Airport at around 2:17 a.m. from Toronto, Canada, with his wife, but was prohibited from entering the country and flew to Japan after being detained for nine hours at the airport.

“The Ministry of Health and Welfare requested to prohibit Rae from entering the country to prevent him from promoting human cloning activities in Korea,” Incheon Airport Customs Office of Ministry of Justice said.

“I cannot understand the move as I have visited South Korea on more than 10 occasions without casing any problems,” said Rael a few minutes before his departure to Japan. “I will sue the South Korean government and the ministry for violating human rights.”

“South Korea is a liberal democratic country but they seem to treat me as if a north Korean, I am a religious leader and have absolutely no connections with Clonaid,” he added.

He was scheduled to conduct various activities in Korea until August 18 such as giving a news conference at Hotel Shilla in Seoul and a public lecture at Scala Movie Theater in Seoul about human cloning

A former French racing car driver, Rael founded the Raelian Movement, which has the doctrine of ‘No God, No Spirit,’ in 1973 and Clonaid in 1997.

There are reportedly approximately 4,000 Raelians in South Korea,

Hee-Jae Park min07@donga.com