Incidents involving South Korean nationals in major countries under travel advisories rose by nearly 50% in a year, with cases tied to personal safety — kidnapping, confinement, lost contact and suspected disappearances — rising sharply. In Cambodia, kidnapping and confinement cases more than doubled in a single year, while reports of suspected disappearances increased roughly 19-fold.
According to data submitted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Korean National Police Agency to Rep. Kim Joon-hwan of the Democratic Party of Korea on the 25th, incidents involving Koreans in the 10 countries that drew the most travel advisories over the past five years rose 48.3% to 4,016 last year from 2,708 in 2024. The 10 countries are Russia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Cambodia, Thailand, China, El Salvador, Mexico, Lebanon, Iran and Laos.
By type, lost-contact cases rose 148.8% to 617 last year from 248 in 2024. Kidnapping and confinement cases more than doubled over the same period, to 553 from 246. Reports of suspected disappearances jumped about 4.8-fold to 188 from 39. Losses of passports and personal belongings also rose 47.9% to 1,080 from 730. The figures point to a sharp increase not only in simple losses but in cases that threaten the personal safety of Korean nationals.
By country, China recorded the most incidents among the 10, rising to 1,580 last year from 1,133 in 2024. Thailand also increased to 1,101 from 755 over the same period. Cambodia surged 163.5% to 917 from 348. The increase of 569 cases accounted for 43.5% of the 1,308-case rise across all 10 countries, meaning more than 40% of the overall increase occurred in Cambodia.
In Cambodia, the increase was concentrated in cases involving personal safety, such as kidnapping, confinement and suspected disappearances. Kidnapping and confinement cases rose 2.3-fold to 510 last year from 221 in 2024. Reports of suspected disappearances jumped about 18.9-fold to 170 from 9. Lost-contact cases also more than doubled, to 124 from 52. Kidnapping and confinement accounted for more than half of the 917 incidents recorded in Cambodia, underscoring the severity of threats to the personal safety of Korean nationals there.