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President Lee Jae-myung speaks during a Cabinet meeting at the presidential office in Yongsan, Seoul, on October 14. / Source: Yonhap News

President Lee Jae-myung on Tuesday ordered the government to mobilize all available resources to swiftly bring home South Korean nationals affected by recent job fraud and confinement crimes in Cambodia.

Speaking at a Cabinet meeting at the presidential office in Yongsan, Seoul, Lee said, “Protecting the lives and safety of our citizens is the government’s foremost responsibility,” adding that authorities must “take immediate action using every available means to ensure their safety and repatriation.”

Lee instructed officials to establish permanent cooperation channels between South Korean and Cambodian law enforcement and to tighten travel restrictions on high-risk areas. “If our citizens request help from embassies abroad, they should receive prompt and constant assistance. Please ensure that the related systems, manpower, and budgets are fully prepared,” he said.

Citing reports of numerous arrests related to the scam cases, Lee said, “Korea seems to rank around fifth or sixth in the number of those detained overseas, which is not a small figure. I ask that you respond quickly, accurately, and decisively.”

According to presidential spokesperson Kim Nam-jun, Lee also called for transparent communication with the public regarding “the scale and nature of the Cambodia situation.”

The Foreign Ministry said that as of August, around 80 South Koreans who had entered Cambodia remain unaccounted for.

To address the situation, the government will dispatch a joint response team to Cambodia on October 15, led by Second Vice Foreign Minister Kim Jin-ah and including officials from the National Police Agency and the National Intelligence Service.

Authorities are also reviewing plans to raise travel advisories for major crime-prone regions in Cambodia. The police plan to launch a new regional task force within ASEAN to coordinate operations against kidnapping and confinement crimes targeting Korean nationals.

During the same Cabinet meeting, the government decided to conduct a special reporting period this month to collect unreported victim cases and analyze the scale and causes of the crimes more accurately.

Separately, President Lee instructed the Defense Ministry to exclude individuals involved in the “December 3 Martial Law” incident or under related suspicion from promotion lists. “If involvement is confirmed, they should naturally be excluded from promotion, and even promotions already granted can be revoked,” Lee said, directing Defense Minister Ahn Kyu-baek to “screen them carefully.”