On the 20th, South Korean media, citing government data, reported that the number of South Koreans suspected of involvement in telecom fraud in Cambodia may far exceed the government’s previous estimate of over 1,000.

According to a document obtained by the office of Park Chan-dae, a member of South Korea’s ruling Democratic Party, from the Ministry of Justice on the 20th, the gap between the number of South Koreans traveling to Cambodia and the number of South Koreans returning to South Korea from Cambodia has widened significantly since 2021. In 2021, the number of South Koreans traveling to Cambodia exceeded the number of South Koreans returning to South Korea by 113. This difference surged to 3,209 in 2022, 2,662 in 2023, and 3,248 in 2024. This may mean that for three consecutive years, two to three thousand South Koreans have remained in Cambodia each year after traveling there. As of August this year, nearly 900 of these individuals had not returned. Local insiders generally believe that the number of South Koreans involved in telecom fraud rings across Cambodia far exceeds the South Korean government’s estimates. Therefore, relevant people suggested that in order to properly rescue Korean citizens who have been detained, kidnapped and violently attacked, the top priority is to fully understand the actual scale of Koreans involved in Cambodian cyber fraud.