A Seoul district prosecutors' office says it has indicted a Hong Kong-based Korean man on charges of helping a group of Chinese illegally enter South Korea on forged passports.

The 40-year-old man, identified only by his family name Chae, is accused of taking 100,000 yuan each from six ethnic Korean Chinese in return for forging entry visas for them.

The Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office said Friday that it has also arrested the six Korean-Chinese on charges of possessing forged official documents.

The Immigration Bureau of the Justice Ministry says the number of foreigners who were caught while illegally entering the nation on forged passports exceeded four thousand last year. The figure for the first seven months of this year has already surpassed three thousand.