Seoul discusses safety of overseas citizens

South Korea held a pan-governmental meeting on Wednesday to discuss ways to ensure the safety of its nationals in foreign countries amid growing risks of exposure to terrorist acts and violent crime.

The meeting of officials from Seoul’s Foreign Ministry and other agencies came amid concerns that there have been no systemic measures to protect its nationals staying overseas.

“It is urgent to come up with preemptive steps to protect our overseas nationals as more Koreans can be exposed to numerous risks such as crime, terrorist acts and natural disasters,” Vice Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul said at the start of the meeting.

The number of South Koreans going abroad reaches 15 million every year while some 2.6 million Korean nationals live overseas, the ministry said.

In recent years, more Koreans have been exposed to crime in foreign countries. In the Philippines, 10 South Koreans were killed last year while 13 were murdered there in 2013. Four Korean drug dealers were executed in China last year alone.

There are also growing concerns that South Korean citizens are not safe from possible attacks by terrorists following the recent purported killing of two Japanese hostages by the Islamic State.

Seoul has imposed travel bans on six countries ― Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Afghanistan and Yemen. More than 1,000 South Korean workers are known to be in Iraq while about 40 nationals are in Yemen and Libya, respectively.

The government has been keeping close tabs on the possible impact of Muslim fundamentalism on its citizens since a South Korean teenager vanished in Turkey earlier last month. The 18-year-old, identified only by his surname Kim, is believed to have crossed the border into Syria voluntarily to join the IS, according to Seoul police.

South Korea has set up a task force within the Foreign Ministry to deal with the issue following Kim’s disappearance, it said. 

(Yonhap)