As reports continue that families appear to have been kidnapped or gone missing in Cambodia, voices in politics called for a hard-line response, even raising the possibility of deploying the military.
Park Beom-gye of the Democratic Party of Korea said at the National Assembly's National Policy Committee audit of the Office for Government Policy Coordination (OPC) and related agencies on 13th, "The perception of the situation so far must be completely different. The whole government must step in."
Park Beom-gye said, "A judicial cooperation agreement between Korea and Cambodia has been signed," adding, "Haven't we poured in an enormous amount of ODA (official development assistance)? It ranks around third in the world. Cambodia is the beneficiary of ODA projects, so this issue should be taken to a level that makes possible diplomatic and police measures, even military operations." The ODA budget for Cambodia increased from 178.9 billion won in 2022 to 435.3 billion won this year.
Park Chan-dae of the same party said, "According to Ministry of Foreign Affairs data, reports of kidnapping and confinement in Cambodia increased from 4 cases in 2021 to 220 last year, and stood at 330 as of the end of August this year," adding, "Didn't you perhaps miss part of this work?"
Kang Min-kuk of the People Power Party said, "When our nationals were kidnapped by Somali pirates in 2011, we rescued them through a military operation," adding, "I think our military should conduct a military operation in cooperation with Cambodian military and police." He added, "If Cambodia refuses a joint operation by the military and police, we should consider recovering the ODA funds injected."
The first to argue for sending the military to Cambodia was Lee Eon-ju of the Democratic Party. Lee wrote on Facebook on 12th, "The international criminal organizations operating in Cambodia are effectively terrorist groups similar to international mafias or bandits," and added, "If the Cambodian government responds lukewarmly, we should consider self-help measures, including military steps, to protect our nationals."
Yoon Chang-ryeol, Minister of the Office for Government Policy Coordination, said of crimes against our nationals taking place in Cambodia, "It's true that we did not recognize the seriousness," adding, "I will do my utmost to solve this problem."
Regarding the claim that the military should be sent to Cambodia, he answered, "It would be good if we can resolve it without going that far," but added, "We will respond including everything."