Repatriation of Korean student's body delayed after torture death
The Gyeongbuk Provincial Police Agency / Yonhap
The body of a Korean college student in his 20s, who was reportedly tortured to death by a local criminal organization in Cambodia, has not been returned home for two months, police and his family said Friday.
They said the student whose identity was withheld was found dead in Cambodia on Aug. 8 after he left for the Southeast Asian country on July 17, telling his family that he was going to attend an exhibition there.
The location where the student's body was found has been confirmed to be near Bokor Mountain in Kampot Province, where employment scams and detentions targeting Koreans have frequently occurred.
Cambodia's police listed cardiac arrest (resulting from torture and extreme pain) as the cause of death on his death certificate.
A week after his departure, a blackmailer speaking Korean in a Korean Chinese accent called his family and demanded 50 million won ($35,200), saying the student caused trouble and needs to resolve it.
After the phone call, his family contacted the police and the foreign ministry. Communication with the blackmailer was cut off after four days, and he was found dead two weeks later.
The student's body has been stuck in Cambodia for two months.
The foreign ministry said it has requested a swift investigation by Cambodian authorities. The police said they dispatched an officer to Cambodia last month to identify and repatriate his body, but their efforts have been delayed due to issues with cooperation from the Cambodian government.
It has been reported that the student's body has not yet been autopsied.
Reports have said that many young foreigners visiting Cambodia have fallen victim to online job scams run by human traffickers, who lure them into illegal cyber fraud schemes and hold them captive.
Korea recently raised the travel alert for Bokor Mountain in Kampot Province and other regions in Cambodia due to concerns over increasing cases of employment scams and confinement.