Lawmakers conduct an audit into the foreign ministry at the National Assembly in Seoul on Monday. (Yonhap)
Lawmakers conduct an audit into the foreign ministry at the National Assembly in Seoul on Monday. (Yonhap)

Rival parties clashed Tuesday over the recent surge in crimes targeting South Koreans in Cambodia, with the main opposition People Power Party criticizing the government's lax response and the ruling Democratic Party pointing the finger at the previous administration.

Their response came amid reports of a growing number of South Koreans abducted and detained in Cambodia after falling victim to job scams. In one tragic case, a university student was found dead near Bokor Mountain in Kampot Province in August after being tortured and detained, sparking public outrage.

"President Lee Jae Myung should take direct action to tackle the issue," PPP floor leader Song Eon-seog said during a party meeting to discuss the ongoing parliamentary audit. "The government's review of setting up a Korean desk or dispatching more consular officials is inadequate."

Song urged the government to take more proactive measures, including forming an interagency emergency task force, deploying a special envoy and holding phone talks with the Cambodian leader, especially as the ambassador post in Phnom Penh remains vacant.

He stressed that the government must mobilize all diplomatic resources to press the Cambodian government to take concrete action.

The DP, meanwhile, shifted the responsibility to the previous Yoon Suk Yeol government.

"It has been revealed that the Yoon Suk Yeol administration had significantly increased official development assistance to Cambodia while neglecting the safety of its citizens," Han Jeoung-ae, the DP's top policymaker, said during a party meeting.

Han noted that as the Yoon government reduced the number of officials handling transnational crimes and ignored requests to dispatch more police personnel, the number of reported kidnapping or detention cases in Cambodia rose sharply from 21 cases in 2023 to 221 in 2024.

Rep. Kim Young-bae, a DP member of the parliamentary foreign affairs committee, echoed the criticism, blaming the Yoon government's "incompetence" for the rise in crimes in Cambodia.

"Crimes targeting South Korean nationals are nothing new, and I have to point out that the incompetence and corruption of the Yoon government is behind this," he said.

Rep. Park Sang-hyuk, the DP's chief aide for communications, urged the PPP to cooperate in addressing the crisis rather than focusing on blaming the government. (Yonhap)