South Korea's Cambodia Crisis: How Online Job Scams Target Korean Nationals

The meeting, led by Second Vice Foreign Minister Kim Jina, came as Seoul has stepped up to tackle the crime targeting South Koreans in the Southeast Asian country, amid growing concerns over cases in which many Koreans have either participated or fallen victim.

Kim instructed the Korean embassy in Cambodia to continue consultations with Cambodian authorities on operational procedures for a bilateral joint task force, agreed upon between the two countries last week.

She also stressed the need to provide swift and proactive consular assistance to protect South Korean citizens in Cambodia, while pledging support to ease the embassy's workload through temporary personnel increases and an additional budget.

Park Il, leading the embassy in Phnom Penh as the de facto head of the mission, said he will work to establish a system to provide consistent support for South Korean victims and to boost prevention and response efforts for Koreans in the country, the ministry said.

On October 20, South Korean Police said that they had sought arrest warrants for 58 suspects repatriated from Cambodia over their alleged involvement in various online scams.

64 such suspects were flown home from Cambodia on Saturday, and one was arrested immediately with a pre-issued warrant.

Of the remaining 63, four were released soon after, while one was released after the prosecution denied the police's request for an arrest warrant, the National Police Agency (NPA) said.

By region, 45 suspects are being handled by the NPA's South Chungcheong Province office, while 15 are being handled by the North Gyeonggi Province office, including those that have already been released.

The remaining four suspects are being investigated by the Daejeon, Gimpo and Wonju offices, as well as Seoul's Seodaemun office, respectively.

The South Chungcheong office has been conducting investigations into romance and other scams that occurred between the end of last year and last July, while the North Gyeonggi office has been investigating romance scams that took place from March to April.

- IANS