Reports say Chinese phishing syndicates operating in Cambodia have long targeted South Korean nationals. The murder of the 22-year-old student has now exposed the full scale of their operations.

Between January and August this year alone, at least 330 South Koreans have fallen victim to abductions and detentions in Cambodia — most after being lured by high-paying job offers.

The victim, identified under the alias Park Jin-soo, came from Yecheon in North Gyeongsang province.

During his summer break in July, he told his parents he had been invited to work at an expo in Phnom Penh, hoping it would lead to employment after graduation. But upon arrival, he was kidnapped and held for ransom of 50 million won (about 1.2 million baht).

The kidnappers repeatedly called his parents, claiming he had caused trouble and needed money for his release. Police advised the family not to pay, fearing it would endanger his life, and instead suggested contacting the South Korean embassy in Phnom Penh — but officials were unable to help because they did not know his location.

Investigations later revealed that Park had been taken to a building in Cambodia’s Bokor Mountains in Kampot province — a stronghold of more than 20 Chinese criminal gangs controlling hotels, resorts and compounds used to detain up to 20,000 victims.

The arrest of three Chinese suspects and rescue of other captives unveiled the harrowing ordeal endured by Park, who had been held alongside other young South Koreans. In the compound, victims were prohibited from using their real names and were assigned codes.

Park was labelled “A21”, while another Korean, “A2”, acted as his minder. A2 had also been tricked into coming to Cambodia, stripped of his passport and phone, and forced to operate call centres scamming fellow Koreans.

Unlike A2, Park was not made to work in the scam operation; instead, he was brutally beaten as his captors demanded ransom. The torture worsened each day — his left leg bone was eventually exposed through the skin. He was also forced to take drugs before dying.

Before his death, the gang took him to hospital, falsely identifying him as a 33-year-old Chinese man. Doctors, noticing inconsistencies between the claim and the man’s severe injuries, alerted the police. Park died on August 8, 2025.

At the time, the Cambodian state-aligned media reported that a Chinese man named “Song Jin Xin”, aged 33, had been found dead in a car at Bokor — contradicting the medical examiner’s findings, which confirmed the victim was a South Korean national who had been murdered.

The death certificate listed the cause of death as acute heart failure due to extreme pain from torture. However, Park’s parents have yet to receive his body, as Cambodian police claim that the autopsy remains incomplete.