South Korea has prohibited its citizens from travelling to parts of Cambodia following a surge of kidnappings tied to industrial-scale cyber-scam centres in the south-east Asian country.
Seoul has received reports of the abduction or forcible confinement by criminal gangs of 330 South Korean nationals in the first eight months of this year. Many have been forced to work in prison-like complexes running online scams targeting people around the world.
The travel ban, which came into force this week, applies to several areas including Bokor Mountain in Cambodia’s Kampot Province, where the body of a South Korean student was discovered in August having allegedly been held captive and tortured by a local crime group.