1. The government of the Republic of Korea held an interagency meeting on November 1 to seek ways to better protect the ROK nationals in the Philippines, where a series of violent crimes has been committed against ROK nationals, with seven killed in five such cases in 2016 alone. The Foreign Ministry’s Director-General for Overseas Koreans and Consular Affairs Kim Wan-joong presided over the meeting that brought together officials of such relevant government agencies as the National Counterterrorism Center of the Prime Minister’s Office, the National Police Agency and the National Intelligence Service.

2. In his opening remarks, Director-General Kim brought attention to the fact that despite close investigative cooperation between the ROK and the Philippines, ROK nationals continue to fall victim to violent crimes in the Philippines. On that note, he underscored the need to step up bilateral cooperation by dispatching Korean investigation experts to the Philippines for relevant cooperation on the ground; asking the Philippine government through the diplomatic channel to conduct investigations in a prompt and fair manner; and increasing the number of the staff members of the Korean Desk in the Philippines.

3. At the interagency meeting, the officials decided to send a delegation headed by Director-General Kim to the Philippines from November 2 to 4 to look into the safety situation of the ROK nationals in the country. The delegation will ask the Philippine police to actively conduct the ongoing investigations into what are suspected to be murder and kidnapping cases; and look into the safety situations in the areas where ROK nationals have been killed.


* unofficial translation