PUBLISHED : 11 Oct 2025 at 09:22

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Barbed wire fences are seen outside a shuttered Great Wall Park compound where Cambodian authorities said they had recovered evidence of human trafficking, kidnapping and torture during raids on suspected cybercrime compounds in the coastal city of Sihanoukville, Cambodia, on Sept 21, 2022. (File photo: Reuters)

Barbed wire fences are seen outside a shuttered Great Wall Park compound where Cambodian authorities said they had recovered evidence of human trafficking, kidnapping and torture during raids on suspected cybercrime compounds in the coastal city of Sihanoukville, Cambodia, on Sept 21, 2022. (File photo: Reuters)

SEOUL — South Korea on Friday summoned the Cambodian ambassador to protest at the death of a South Korean student in Cambodia and raised the travel alert for its capital Phnom Penh over online scam cases targeting Koreans.

Foreign Affairs Minister Cho Hyun voiced concerns to Ambassador Khuon Phon Rattanak over the “continued occurrence of job scams and detention of South Korean citizens in Cambodia, and urged the Cambodian government to come up with swift and practical measures to eradicate online scams”, his ministry said.

Khuon said he understood the Korean government’s concerns and position and would report this to his government, according to a Seoul foreign ministry statement. Cambodia’s embassy did not answer Reuters’ calls seeking comment.

A South Korean college student was tortured to death in Cambodia in August in a case linked to an employment scam, according to South Korean media.

In a separate statement, South Korea’s foreign ministry raised the travel alert for Phnom Penh to a special travel advisory level, effective 9pm Korean time (1200 GMT).