Joint conference on kidnapping response held Thursday

Police officials from South Korea and the Philippines attend the "Korea-Philippines Joint Conference on Kidnapping Response" at the South Korean Embassy in Manila on Thursday. [Korean National Police Agency]
Police officials from South Korea and the Philippines attend the "Korea-Philippines Joint Conference on Kidnapping Response" at the South Korean Embassy in Manila on Thursday. [Korean National Police Agency]

South Korean and Philippine police conducted a joint field training exercise to prepare for kidnappings and other violent crimes targeting South Korean nationals.

The Korean National Police Agency said Tuesday that the drill, held Thursday, simulated scenarios based on actual kidnapping and rescue cases that occurred in Manila.

The exercise assumed a kidnapping report had been received at a Philippine police operations center, and covered the full response process — from situation reporting and command to officer deployment, victim location and rescue. South Korean specialists in crisis negotiation and cyber investigation shared investigative techniques and field experience with their Philippine counterparts, and the two sides discussed victim rescue strategies applicable to real kidnapping cases.

On the same day, the South Korean Embassy in Manila facilitated the "Korea-Philippines Joint Conference on Kidnapping Response," where police experts from the two countries discussed the division of roles and cooperation procedures for rapid response. The Philippine police pledged to actively investigate kidnapping cases involving South Korean nationals and work to apprehend suspects.

Kim Dong-kwon, director of the Korean National Police Agency's International Police Cooperation Bureau, said the drill was significant because the two countries' police jointly reviewed the entire response process — from receiving a report to rescuing a victim — based on an actual kidnapping case. "We will continue to expand international cooperation with law enforcement agencies in the Philippines and other major Southeast Asian countries, and steadily strengthen our capacity to respond to crimes targeting our nationals," he said.


arin@heraldcorp.com