SHENYANG, China (Yonhap) -- A Korean reverend was killed in a head-on collision in northeastern China, a South Korean diplomat and a church official said Wednesday.

The Rev. Kang Ho-bin was driving to Longjing on Sunday afternoon when a bus carrying seven passengers collided with his car on a two-lane road, the South Korean diplomat in the northeastern Chinese city of Shenyang said. He asked not to be identified, citing policy.

One of the lanes was closed due to construction when the accident occurred, according to Kim Young-seck, a reverend of Korea Evangelical Holiness Church, a denomination with which Kang was affiliated.

Kim said no foul play is suspected in the traffic accident and added Kang's wife has left for China.

Kang, 58, had said an unidentified assailant carried out a poison attack on him in Yanji last year, according to Kim.

The Korean diplomat said the alleged poison attack was not reported to the South Korean mission in Shenyang.

Kang, a former skipper of a deep-sea fishing vessel, had taught in a maritime university in Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture since 1995. He later preached the gospel to North Korean defectors and ethnic Koreans in China after being ordained in 2007, according to Kim.