Seoul Imposes Travel Ban on Cambodian Cities Following Brutal Killing of Korean Student

Seoul on Wednesday banned travel to parts of Cambodia with South Korea shaken by the torture and killing of a college student there.

The move comes as South Korea sent a team to the Southeast Asian country on Wednesday to discuss cases of fake jobs and scam centres involved in kidnapping dozens of its nationals.

"The Bokor Mountain area in Kampot Province, Bavet City, and Poipet City are designated as travel ban zones," the foreign ministry said in a statement.

"South Korean nationals visiting or staying in those areas may be subject to penalties. Citizens planning to travel to such areas are therefore strongly advised to cancel their trips," it said.

The ban follows an official announcement earlier Wednesday that about 1,000 South Koreans -- of around 200,000 people in total -- are estimated to be working in Cambodian scam operations, targeting potential victims in South Korea.

Seoul said 63 South Koreans were believed to have been detained by Cambodian authorities, and officials have vowed to bring them home.

"We are arranging a flight to bring them home... We aim to complete this by the end of the week," National Security Adviser Wi Sung-lac told reporters.

Of the 63 detained, there were both "voluntary and involuntary participants" in the scam operations, he said.

"Most of them should be regarded as having committed criminal acts" for taking part in the schemes, he said, regardless of their initial intentions, adding they would be subject to investigation upon returning home.

The South Korean team, headed by the vice foreign minister, departed Wednesday evening, said a foreign ministry official.

Touch Sokhak, a spokesman for Cambodia's interior ministry, told AFP that its government would welcome the South Korean team and work with them to "crack down on transnational crimes".

"Following recent operations conducted by Cambodian authorities, there are 80 South Korean nationals who are being taken care of -- not in detention -- by our immigration authority because they have decided not to return to South Korea," Touch Sokhak said.

Representatives of Seoul's embassy had met with its nationals in Cambodia, he said, adding he did not know why they had not opted to return to South Korea.

The spokesman also said he could not confirm whether the South Koreans with Cambodian immigration were the same individuals reported missing by Seoul.

Some 330 South Koreans were reported missing or detained against their will in Cambodia between January and August this year, according to Seoul's foreign ministry. That number has since been reduced to 80 whose safety remains unverified.

Seoul said it would "make every diplomatic effort to secure Cambodia's cooperation", according to the presidential office.

The response team includes officials from the police and South Korea's spy agency, it said.

As well as repatriation discussions, police would also conduct a joint investigation into the recent death of a South Korean college student.

The student, reportedly kidnapped and tortured by a crime ring, was found dead in a pickup truck on August 8.

An autopsy revealed he "died as a result of severe torture, with multiple bruises and injuries across his body", according to a Cambodian court statement.

Three Chinese nationals were charged with murder and online fraud on August 11 and remain in pre-trial detention, it said.

Many South Korean victims of such crimes in Cambodia are said to have been lured by fraudulent job offers promising high pay, Seoul has said.

Rights group Amnesty International says abuses in Cambodia's scam centres are happening on a "mass scale".

There are at least 53 scam compounds in Cambodia where organised criminal groups carry out human trafficking, forced labour, torture, deprivation of liberty and slavery, according to Amnesty.