’61 days in hell’: Korean man recounts being trafficked in Cambodia

A Korean man who spent 61 days in captivity in Cambodia described being beaten, sold to human traffickers and jailed by Cambodian police after seeking help from authorities, exposing the grim reality faced by victims of cross-border crime and the limits of diplomatic protection.

Heo Min-jung (alias), a man in his 40s, traveled alone to Sihanoukville, Cambodia, on July 2 for a short vacation. After visiting a casino with a Korean acquaintance, he met a group of Chinese nationals introduced by the acquaintance. They drank together twice before the situation turned into what Heo later called “61 days in hell.”

When the acquaintance briefly left the table, the Chinese men locked the door, surrounded Heo and demanded money.

“They told me to call my friends and said they would release me if I paid between $5,000 and $10,000,” Heo said.

They took his belongings but left his phone, allowing him to contact the Korean embassy through Telegram.

The embassy instructed him to fill out multiple forms and send photos of the confinement site — a task he said was “nearly impossible” while under guard. He eventually sent a brief message describing his situation, but help did not arrive.

“The embassy only said it could take two or three days,” Heo said. “The building looked ordinary, but from the fifth to the 20th floors, it was full of voice phishing offices.”

Heo said he was beaten for three days, forced into painful positions and hit with bottles and ashtrays when he faltered.

On the third day, the kidnappers sold him to another man known by the Telegram handle “Hedgehog,” a Korean-Chinese broker involved in bank account trafficking for scam operations.

“Hedgehog told me I could make money if I joined a scam group,” Heo said.

On July 8, Cambodian police raided the building. But instead of arresting the perpetrators, they detained Heo along with them.

“I had to stay quiet so they wouldn’t realize I had reported it,” he said.

At the police station, Heo was held in a small cell with straw on the dirt floor and bars open to the rain.

“Lizards and cockroaches crawled everywhere,” he said. “I thought I’d be released soon since I was the victim, but I stopped trusting the police.”

He briefly escaped through a gap in the bars but was caught two hours later and moved to another cell in the station.

The overcrowded cell, he said, “was like hell.” Up to 35 people were crammed into a 4-by-5-meter (13-by-16 foot) room. The floor was slick with sweat, and the air was suffocating.

“It felt like being dropped into fire,” Heo said.

Detainees received dirty water twice a day and two small meals of rice with half an egg.

Heo remained there for about five weeks. Other inmates told him his kidnappers had bribed police after their arrest — paying the police chief $100,000 to stay in an air-conditioned room before being released.

“Even a murderer who killed three people paid $20,000 and walked free in four days,” Heo said.

On Aug. 11, Heo was transferred to an immigration facility, which he described as “a slightly larger prison cell.”

“They called it protection, but it still felt like imprisonment,” he said.

Officers there demanded 1 million won ($700) for access to a phone, and he still could not meet anyone from the Korean Embassy.

After three weeks, on Aug. 31, Heo finally returned to Korea with the help of Democratic Party Rep. Park Chan-dae’s office, which had been coordinating rescue efforts for Koreans trapped in Cambodia.

“I was lucky,” Heo said. “The lawmaker’s team happened to be rescuing other victims at that time, so I could come home with them. Even as victims, we were locked up with criminals, and the embassy left us there despite knowing the conditions. It was 61 days of hell.”

BY LEE YOUNG-KEUN, OH SO-YEONG [paik.jihwan@joongang.co.kr]