Foreign Ministry delayed Cambodia travel warnings despite kidnappings, audit finds

South Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs neglected its duty to protect South Korean nationals overseas during a wave of kidnappings and unlawful detentions in Cambodia last year, delaying travel warning upgrades and failing to activate its overseas citizen protection task force, a government audit has found.

The ministry knew that South Koreans were falling victim to crimes in Cambodia but misread the criteria for issuing alerts or cited the need for inter-departmental consultations to justify inaction, the probe found. It did not raise the travel warning until after a South Korean university student's death at a criminal compound was reported in the media.

The Board of Audit and Inspection released the findings Thursday as part of its audit on the operations of overseas diplomatic missions and the protection of South Korean nationals abroad.

According to the board, 741 South Korean nationals were victimized by kidnappings and unlawful detentions in Cambodia over the three years from 2023 to 2025. The toll rose sharply year by year — 17 victims in 2023, 220 in 2024 and 504 in 2025.

In August 2025, a South Korean university student died after being tortured at a criminal compound in Cambodia.

Yet the Foreign Ministry took no appropriate action — including raising the travel warning — even after crimes against South Koreans began in earnest in December 2023, the board concluded.

According to the board, the South Korean Embassy in Cambodia recommended in April 2024 that a special travel advisory be issued, but the ministry determined the situation did not meet the criteria for such an alert.

When the embassy again recommended raising the travel warning in July of that year, the ministry left the situation unaddressed, citing the failure to submit the required adjustment form.

The ministry finally acted in September 2025 — a month after the student's death was reported in the media and roughly two years after employment-scam victims first began suffering harm. Even after media coverage of the Cambodia situation in August 2024, the ministry continued to delay the warning upgrade due to inter-departmental confusion and other internal issues.

In response, the board called for light disciplinary action against three Foreign Ministry officials who failed to raise the travel warning and activate the overseas citizen protection task force in a timely manner, saying they had "neglected their duty to protect South Korean nationals by failing to carry out their responsibilities on time."

The board also notified the ministry that one official at the Cambodia embassy who had not actively recommended raising the travel warning would have the finding recorded in personnel files for use in future employment-related reviews.

Beyond the Cambodia case, the board found that travel warning adjustments by overseas missions were broadly delayed.

Of 54 travel warning adjustments made at the recommendation of overseas missions between 2023 and October 2025, 16 — or 29.6 percent — took 15 days or more to complete. In nine of those cases, the delay stemmed from internal administrative procedures, including working-level consultations between the missions and the relevant divisions at Foreign Ministry headquarters over the scope of the alerts.

In response, the board notified the Foreign Ministry to establish guidelines covering the subjects, methods and deadlines for consultations on travel warning adjustments to ensure they are issued in a timely manner.