In mid-October 2025, a set of data disclosed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of South Korea triggered a shock in the whole society: from January to August this year, 330 cases of kidnapping and detention of Korean citizens occurred in Cambodia, a surge of 50% compared with the 220 cases in the same period in 2024. Looking back to 2021, this number is only 2, and the number of cases has increased 165 times in four years.
As the details of the massacre of a 22-year-old university student were exposed, South Korean President Lee presided over a state conference on October 14 to launch a national rescue operation, calling on departments to use all available resources to promote the rescue and return of victims.
In the outskirts of a scam park in the city of Sihanouk, Cambodia, the Iron Grid and surveillance cameras form an impenetrable barrier, which is a common landmark after Korean citizens are abducted. Criminal organization’s seduction chain has formed a standardized operation, specifically targeting Korean youth aged 20 to 30 years old, putting fake advertisements designed with the heart on short video platforms and job search websites.
“A minimum of 20 million yuan (approximately 100,000 yuan) per month, the chance to change fate only this time” “Sihanuk city love chat business, monthly income of 10 million to 25 million yuan, package airline ticket dining”, such a very tempting propaganda content, accurately hit the anxiety of the South Korean youth unemployed group.
In addition to high-paying jobs, criminal gangs are constantly changing tricks to trick. 22-year-old international student A. was one of the victims, and in July this year, he easily believed the false information of the "Cambodian invitation to the exhibition", believing that he could get the opportunity to academic exchange, and actually entered the death trap.
After arriving at Phnom Penh International Airport, he was taken to an unlicensed van by people who had been waiting for him and taken directly to the fraud park. His passport and mobile phone were confiscated on the spot. In August, his family received a call from the kidnapper, demanding a ransom of 50 million won (about 250,000 yuan). Only four days after the family reported the case urgently, they completely lost contact with the kidnapper.
Eventually, A. was killed, and the death certificate issued by the Cambodian police showed that death was caused by "torture caused severe pain and caused a heart attack." According to the local police investigation, because A. refused to participate in telecommunications fraud activities, suffered from various forms of abuse such as electro-punishment, beating, and so on, after the family called the police, the rapist's acts of violence were further escalated.
Similar deception cases continue to occur. Some victims 'families revealed to South Korean media that their families were lured out of the country under the guise of "sending documents to Cambodia on their behalf." Some young people eventually fell into detention for trusting the information of "soliciting Cambodian companions" on social platforms.
Even more worrying, even though the tragedy of student A. has caused widespread attention, fake recruitment posts on South Korean social platforms have not disappeared, and most platforms have not taken effective measures to clear such information.
The surge of cases has exposed multiple obstacles to transnational rescue. The Cambodian police adhere to the principle of "the victim himself reporting the case" and require the informant to provide "photos or videos of the imprisonment scene" before starting the police procedure, which causes great trouble to family members and Korean overseas agencies.
According to the staff of the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs, under the threat of torture, some victims were forced to lie to the outside world that they "voluntarily stayed and worked in the local area", and even recorded clarification videos, which made it difficult for rescuers to judge the real situation. A more realistic problem is that the Korean Embassy in Cambodia is currently equipped with only three police officers. Faced with the verification and rescue needs of 330 cases, there is a serious shortage of manpower, and the response often lags behind.
A previous report released by the U.S. State Department showed that Cambodia has been included in the "List of Countries with the Most Serious Trafficking in Persons" for four consecutive years. Some political figures have been accused of holding shares in electronic fraud parks. Law enforcement operations are often "tipped off", which further exacerbates the difficulty of fighting crime.
South Korea's ruling and opposition parties reacted strongly to this, with many voices demanding that the government take stronger response measures, even including "military actions." At the same time, some public opinion questioned that Cambodia had "betrayed the huge Government Development Assistance (ODA) funds provided by South Korea."
On October 10, South Korea's Foreign Minister, Zhao Xiao, first took action to summon Cambodia's ambassador to South Korea, Kun Fong Latanak, and raised a strict protest, urging Cambodia to thoroughly investigate the criminal chain, cut off the crime gang's funding and communication channels, and proposed the establishment of a "exclusive window for Korean affairs" to facilitate police cooperation between the two countries.
On the same day, the South Korean government issued a "special travel reminder" to Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. Through the embassy's official website, social platforms, mobile phone text messages and other channels, it repeatedly reminded citizens to be wary of false information such as "high-paying jobs" and "invitations to participate."
At the State Council meeting on October 14th, Lee Jae-myung further clarified the rescue deployment, and asked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Police Department and other agencies to establish an inter-departmental emergency linkage mechanism. "Protecting the life safety of victims must be the first priority, and every minute and every second is related to the survival of life".
According to the resolution of the meeting, the South Korean government will send a joint response group to Cambodia on October 15, and plans to hold a high-level police meeting in Seoul on October 23, focusing on signing a Memorandum of Understanding on the establishment of the "Korean People's Service".
Police cooperation has entered the stage of substantial advancement, the South Korean Police Department announced the scale of the "Cambodian Crime Victims Joint Response Group" to expand to 30 people, the formation of an emergency team composed of International Police experts and forensics, as soon as this month to send the country's search minister to Cambodia to promote joint body examination and case investigation.
In the case of a student A, the Guangzhou Police Department has formed a special investigation team that is about to travel to Cambodia with local police to conduct a joint body examination, while the domestic police have seized a 20-year-old Korean man suspected of seducing the student, and is following this clue to deepen the complete criminal chain of "intermediary seduction, cross-border transfer, park detention".
At the level of international cooperation, South Korea is pushing for the establishment of an international law enforcement alliance covering neighboring countries, and plans to call on the world to join forces next month at the Interpol conference in Morocco to fight the “transnational fraud park”.
At the prevention level, the South Korean government is working with employment agencies and schools to develop a “Overseas Employment Risk Guide” specifically for people planning to work abroad and participate in exhibitions.
South Korea's presidential office revealed that the joint response group will focus on investigating the scam parks in Cambodian city of Sihanouk, Gomb Province and other crime-prone areas, while negotiating with Cambodia to simplify the rescue procedures, prompting Cambodia to use "identity information and approximate location" as the basis for police appearance, replacing the previously rigorous "imaging evidence" requirements.
For victims who are still trapped in fraudulent parks, the South Korean government is collecting information through secret channels such as the internal structure of the parks and the rules of shifting to prepare for subsequent precision rescue.
The tragedy of foreign students A. became a key node in promoting the South Korean government's upgrading of rescue operations, and how to fundamentally curb the surge of cases, it still needs deeper cooperation between the two countries in law enforcement cooperation, source governance and other fields.
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