Reports of kidnapping, confinement and related abuses tied to scam operations in Cambodia have fallen more than 95% in the year since the South Korean government launched a whole-of-government response to transnational crime. Arrests of criminals in Southeast Asia and repatriations of fugitives hiding abroad both more than doubled.
According to the government's one-year review of its whole-of-government response to transnational crime, released on the 21st, authorities arrested 834 criminals in Southeast Asia between January and September this year, 2.5 times the 340 arrested in the same period a year earlier. Repatriations of fugitives abroad rose 2.6-fold over the same period, from 254 to 655.
Crime victim indicators also improved. Reports of kidnapping, confinement and related abuses linked to scam operations in Cambodia fell 95.1%, from 386 to 19. Voice phishing cases dropped 50.2%, from 18,746 to 9,333, and losses fell 57.5%, from 986.7 billion won ($682 million) to 419.6 billion won ($290 million).
The government's push against transnational crime gained momentum after the kidnapping and killing of a South Korean university student in Cambodia last year. At a meeting of relevant ministers on Oct. 23 last year, President Lee Jae-myung ordered an all-out response that would marshal the country's investigative, diplomatic, judicial and financial capabilities. A special task force on transnational crime was launched on Dec. 29 of the same year, bringing together 10 agencies including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Justice, the Financial Services Commission, the National Intelligence Service, the Public Prosecution Office and the Korean National Police Agency.
Rather than investigating overseas crimes after the fact from within South Korea, as it had previously done, the government concentrated investigative resources on cracking down directly on crime bases in cooperation with local authorities.
In October last year, 64 suspects accused of involvement in scam rings in Cambodia were forcibly repatriated on a chartered flight. In November, a joint Korean-Cambodian police unit known as the Korea Task Force was set up in the country. That same month, authorities arrested Li Guang-hao, a Chinese national identified as the suspected mastermind in the kidnapping and killing of the South Korean university student. In January this year, 73 scam suspects accused of defrauding 869 South Koreans of about 48.6 billion won ($33.6 million) were repatriated as a group — the largest such group repatriation on record.
Long-stalled repatriations of fugitives abroad were also carried out. In March, the government brought home Park Wang-yeol, a drug offender who had been held in the Philippines, after about 10 years. Based on leads obtained during the investigation into Park, authorities later arrested and repatriated Choi Byung-min, a drug supplier, in Thailand.
The government said it plans to strengthen direct crackdowns on overseas crime bases and the arrest of ringleaders while expanding the recovery of criminal proceeds, in order to cut off the foundations of transnational crime rings at the source. In particular, legislation on standalone confiscation passed the National Assembly in August, creating a legal basis for confiscating and collecting criminal proceeds even when the offender has died or fled abroad.
"Based on close cooperation among the relevant agencies, we will marshal all of the government's capabilities until transnational crime that threatens the lives and property of our citizens is eradicated," a government official said.