Cambodians bristle at Korean president's now-deleted post on scam rings

A now-deleted social media post by President Lee Jae Myung about Southeast Asian phishing crime rings has stirred unease among Cambodians, who saw the phrasing as unfairly characterizing the country as a hotbed of scams.

In recent months, Korean authorities and the Cambodian government have cooperated to crack down on crime rings based in Cambodia involving Koreans, as part of broader efforts to combat transnational online scam operations.

The controversy centers on a message Lee posted last Friday on X, formerly Twitter, in both the Korean and Khmer languages. The post shared a Korean media report suggesting that Chinese scam rings operating in Cambodia had stopped recruiting Koreans for fear of a crackdown by Korean authorities.

"Do you think my warning that those who mess with Koreans will lose everything is just empty talk?" the president wrote. "When the Republic of Korea commits, it follows through to the very end."

His message, however, had the unintended effect of angering Cambodians.

"The visual appearance of his tweet was diplomatically clumsy, as it did not bring about an important distinction. There is a huge difference between the 'scam networks operating in Cambodia' and 'Cambodia as a scam symbol'. I am afraid his tweet, now deleted, framed Cambodia as the latter, not the former," Bunly Ek, a lecturer of East Asia at Paragon International University in Cambodia, told The Korea Times on Tuesday.

"Even if the target is transnational criminal groups, the imagery and framing create a reputational spillover. For Cambodians, it is unfair and causes misunderstanding to the country," he added.

Malapin Vanny, a 24-year-old Cambodian living in Korea, told The Korea Times that the president’s post in her language struck her as unusually harsh.

“There was widespread unease among Cambodians around me that, because the post was written in Khmer, some interpreted it as portraying Cambodia in a negative light,” she said.

She added that, while she and other Cambodians were initially confused and upset, reading the full article later made them realize that the post was not intended to harm Cambodia’s image but to alert readers to criminal groups and encourage cooperation.

Kanha Ongchamroeun, a 24-year-old government scholarship program student at Yonsei University, said, “As the post was partially written in Khmer and said ‘If you mess with Koreans, you will lose everything,’ it naturally affected the feeling and concerns within the Cambodia community living in Korea, and Cambodian people [back home].

“As a student living in Korea, I do feel disappointed and upset with the post,” she said, adding that although it was not directed at Cambodians as a whole, the strong Khmer-language wording seemed to signal negative feelings toward Cambodia and gave the impression that the Korean government was singling the country out over scam-related issues.

Cambodian internet users also expressed discontent over the deleted post in the comment section of a news article published by RFI Khmer, the Cambodian-language service of Radio France Internationale.

"For a leader of a developed country to use that kind of 'diplomatic' language toward another nation is unacceptable. Online scams exist worldwide. Koreans collude with Chinese groups and operate in Cambodia, yet Cambodia is blamed," one user wrote.

Another user expressed disappointment, commenting, "To lead an entire country, and still be so careless and irresponsible."

The Cambodian government conveyed its displeasure about the post to Korean Ambassador to Cambodia Kim Chang-ryong. After the response was reported to the presidential office, the post was deleted.

The Cambodian Embassy in Seoul was not immediately available for comment regarding the issue.

Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs downplayed concerns of a diplomatic feud over Lee's remarks, saying that Seoul and Phnom Penh remain in regular communication.

"The decision (to delete the post) appears to have been made after taking into account multiple factors, including that the government’s firm stance on combating online scam crimes had already been sufficiently delivered to the public," a ministry official said Monday.

The ministry also rejected reports that the Cambodian government had "formally summoned" the Korean ambassador to Cambodia over the issue, saying communication between the two sides was routine and part of diplomacy as usual.

These developments come amid Korean authorities' increased efforts to address public concerns about scam compounds in Cambodia that have lured Korean nationals — many of them young people — through fraudulent job offers, often resulting in forced participation in online fraud schemes and human trafficking.

In October last year, the government said it estimated that around 1,000 Koreans may have been involved in organized crime rings there, though officials noted it remained unclear how many were victims coerced into the operations and how many participated voluntarily.

As part of its response, Seoul established a dedicated government task force and has worked closely with Cambodian authorities in cracking down on those crimes.

On Sunday, the government operated a chartered flight to repatriate 73 Korean suspects accused of defrauding 876 victims of about 46 billion won. It marked the second-largest repatriation following the return of 64 suspects from Cambodia last October.