travel alert: foreign visitor murdered in new zealand

A white supremacist has been jailed for at least 16 years in New Zealand for
murdering a South Korean hitchhiker.

Prosecutors said Shannon Brent Flewellen and another man, Hayden McKenzie,
strangled Kim Jae-hyeon after picking him up on a quiet road in 2003.

Mr Kim was reported missing by his parents the following year when he failed
to return to South Korea.

McKenzie was jailed for a minimum of 21 years without parole in 2008 after
pleading guilty to the murder.

Judge John Fogarty said Flewellen had displayed clear racist beliefs since
he was a teenager and that the killing showed "a high degree of
callousness".

"It was very significant that Mr Kim was Asian. You have white supremacist,
neo-Nazi beliefs," he said.

"You regarded him as not deserving of the same dignity and respect as a
white person."

Mr Kim was strangled to death in September 2003 while he was backpacking in
the West Coast region of the country.

His parents reported him missing in May 2004 but his remains were not
returned to South Korea until 2008.