SHANGHAI: South Korean man Kim Soo Seok, 44, faced a trial Tuesday at the Shanghai No 1 Intermediate People's Court for kidnapping, together with his two Chinese accessories Jin Mingyu and Chi Minhao who were charged with illegal detention.

     This is the first kidnapping case involving a foreigner in Shanghai.

     Kim was accused of plotting to kidnap another South Korean man and demanding a ransom of 300 million won ($295,000), the court was told Tuesday.

     On December 24, under the order of the second defendant Jin Mingyu, Chi Minhao, a 29-year-old Korean minority from Jilin province, contacted Jean Moon Gyun, a 23-year-old South Korean studying at the Shanghai University of Sport.

     Chi told Jean that a friend of his father's was visiting Shanghai and wanted to meet him, the prosecutor said.

     Jean's father, Jean Sam Duck, is the president of a taekwondo association in Gyeongsangnam-do, a province in the southeast of South Korea, and owns several properties, Kim's attorney Yin Yongyu told China Daily. Jean Sam Duck also has a fast food business, Kim told the court.

     Jean Moon Gyun arrived at a coffee house in the city's suburban Minhang district that evening and met Chi, and was later taken to an apartment nearby.

     He was detained by force until being released by police on the afternoon of