(123rf)
(123rf)

The Foreign Ministry requested an increase in the number of South Korean police attache posts in Cambodia last year, documents show, but the Interior Ministry rejected the proposal, citing a lack of work for them to do.

According to government documents released Tuesday by Rep. Wi Seong-gon of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, the Interior Ministry said the existing police workload — including the rise in crime — did not justify adding another police attache.

The decision came despite a surge in crimes involving South Koreans in Cambodia. The number rose from 81 cases in 2022 to 134 in 2023, and jumped to 348 in 2024. In the first half of this year alone, 303 incidents have already been reported.

Currently, three police officers are stationed at the South Korean Embassy in Cambodia — one police attache and two liaison officers.

Even this increase in personnel came after the embassy, which initially had only one police attache, added one liaison officer each in October last year and again last month on a temporary assignment basis.

“It was a clear mistake for the Yoon Suk Yeol administration to ignore the request to increase the number of police personnel, even though South Koreans were repeatedly being kidnapped and held captive in Cambodia (last year),” said Rep. Wi.

In response to the severity of crimes involving South Korean citizens in Cambodia and growing calls to increase police presence, the government plans to expand the number of police attaches in Cambodia within this year.

”There was a special instruction (this week) for the president to establish a ‘Korean Desk’ (a help desk within a Cambodian police station for Korean nationals and the possible dispatch of Korean officers to Cambodia) similar to those already set up in Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam, and protect our citizens from crime,” said the Interior Minister Yoon Ho-jung in an annual National Assembly audit held on Tuesday. “We are currently carrying out that order.”


sj_lee@heraldcorp.com