Bahk Eun-ji has been with The Korea Times since 2012, building a career across multiple desks. She began at the Business Desk, where she conducted in-depth interviews with key figures in Korea's corporate world. Later, she moved to the Politics & City Desk, focusing on education policy and social affairs. She later served as team leader of the digital content team, leading curation efforts on the newspaper’s homepage and reshaping print stories for social media audiences to enhance digital reach. Now back on the Politics Desk, she covers the National Assembly and the Ministry of National Defense, with a renewed focus on political developments.
Cambodia crime wave sparks political blame game in Seoul
Foreign Minister Cho Hyun answers questions from lawmakers focused on crimes involving Korean nationals in Cambodia during a parliamentary audit of the Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee at the National Assembly in Yeouido, Seoul, Oct. 13. Yonhap
By Bahk Eun-ji
A political storm has erupted in Seoul over a series of abductions and confinement cases involving Korean nationals in Cambodia, as rival parties clash over who bears responsibility for the government’s slow response to the growing overseas crime crisis.
The ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) accused the previous administration under Yoon Suk Yeol of neglecting the safety of its citizens despite increasing development aid to Cambodia and maintaining ties with religious lobby groups.
In response, the main opposition People Power Party (PPP) claimed that Chinese criminal syndicates are the root cause of the crimes, urging the government to step up diplomatic pressure on Beijing.
The controversy has intensified ahead of the National Assembly’s Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee inspection in Phnom Penh, which is scheduled to take place from Tuesday to Friday. Lawmakers plan to visit crime-ridden areas and the Korean Embassy to review efforts to protect citizens abroad.
DPK policy chief Han Jeoung-ae said the previous government “poured money into official development assistance projects while ignoring repeated requests to send additional police officers to Cambodia,” citing a sharp increase in confinement and abduction cases over the past year.
Rep. Kim Young-bae, the committee’s DPK secretary, claimed that “the Yoon government’s negligence and cronyism created the conditions for this tragedy,” adding that “first lady Kim Keon Hee’s ODA favoritism and photo-op diplomacy revealed where its real priorities lay.”
Then first lady Kim Keon Hee visits the home of a child suffering from heart disease in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Nov. 12, 2022. Courtesy of the Presidential Office
Another DPK spokesperson responded to the opposition’s criticism, saying, “Before accusing the government of acting like a contrarian administration that moves in the wrong direction just to be different, the PPP should first apologize for Kim Keon Hee’s so-called ‘Hepburn-style’ photo stunt and the reckless aid giveaways that followed.”
This remark was in reference to an earlier statement from the PPP describing the Lee Jae Myung administration as a “contrary government,” a local expression taken from a Korean folktale about a frog that always did the opposite of what it was told, implying inconsistency and misplaced priorities.
The PPP maintains that Chinese criminal networks are at the center of the crisis. PPP spokesperson Park Sung-hoon said that the abductions and voice phishing scams targeting Koreans in Cambodia are “largely orchestrated by Chinese-run syndicates.”
“The government must raise this issue directly with Chinese President Xi Jinping during the upcoming Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit,” he said, urging a formal protest against Beijing’s inaction.
Park also cautioned against “celebrating” the recent repatriations of Koreans from Cambodia, noting that many of those deported were complicit in the criminal operations.
“What matters is rescuing the victims who are still missing,” he said.
The dispute escalated after 64 Koreans were repatriated on Saturday, following the dismantling of a criminal enclave involved in online scams.
While the PPP argued that the deportations exposed the scale of transnational crime, the DPK hailed them as “a necessary step to protect citizens and dismantle organized networks.”
According to Cambodian police, many of those detained had been forced to work in the infamous “Wench” compound, where kidnapped laborers were coerced into carrying out digital fraud.
The Korean government later dispatched a joint task force led by Second Vice Foreign Minister Kim Jin-ah and composed of police, prosecutors and intelligence officials to coordinate investigations and support victims.
The crisis dates back to August when a Korean university student was found dead, allegedly after being tortured by local criminals. Since then, more than 300 Koreans have reported cases of confinement or extortion in Cambodia.
Although Seoul has issued stronger travel warnings and increased its law enforcement presence, the two parties remain deeply divided — the DPK portrays the issue as a legacy of mismanagement under the Yoon administration, while the PPP frames it as a matter of Chinese complicity and transnational crime.
With the parliamentary delegation due to arrive in Phnom Penh this week, the Cambodia scandal is expected to dominate the upcoming hearings. The session will be led by Kim Seok-ki, the chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, and will include lawmakers from the DPK, the PPP and the minor Rebuilding Korea Party.
Although Foreign Minister Cho Hyun is not scheduled to attend the on-site inspection, he has vowed in Seoul to implement “extraordinary measures” in coordination with the Cambodian government to ensure the safety of Korean nationals abroad.