Doubts Over Kidnapped Koreans in Mexico

Five South Koreans abducted in a Mexican town near the U.S. border were set free unharmed on Tuesday, nine days after they were kidnapped, officials said.

"Five Koreans who were abducted in Reynosa were safely let go at 9 a.m. Korean time today and are being investigated by Mexican police," said Lee Jung-kwan, head of the Overseas Koreans and Consular Affairs Bureau.

The five Koreans have been identified as Lee (41), Park (39), Bang (female, 33), Lee (30), and Ryu (33).

Some news media previously reported Ryu as a Chinese national speaking fluent Korean, but the bureau has officially denied the reports.

The Foreign Ministry said the abductors in the face of pressure from the police investigation released the five Koreans in front of a hotel downtown and tipped off police about the Koreans’ whereabouts.

However, a growing suspicion is that this is not just a simple kidnapping incident, but a systematic one involving a U.S. ring organization crossing illegal immigrants into the United States.

The incident’s characteristics are far different from the usual abduction cases in which kidnappers constantly watch those kidnapped to avoid police tracking them down, ask for huge ransom money at the beginning of negotiations, and remove as much evidence as possible until the end.

○ Doubts over the abduction case

The five Koreans who were kidnapped last Monday were held in a residential area in Reynosa and were allowed to make outside calls.

Park was able to call his sister in Korea as well as the Korean embassy in Mexico several times, all in Korean, which the kidnappers allowed even though they don’t understand the language.

A ministry source said, “The abductors restricted the calls when conversations got longer.” However, doubts remain given that the hostages could have easily passed on information about their location.

In fact, the phone contact between the Korean government and the hostages came when a Korean Consular phoned the cellular phone number owned by Park, which was informed by Park’s sister.

This type of situation is rare since in most cases kidnappers call using a telephone booth and unilaterally disconnect the call.

A Korean Mexican lawyer who served as a mediator between the Korean government and the abductors also talked with them on several occasions on the phone Wednesday.

The kidnappers reportedly asked for a low ransom, only 30,000 dollars, which raised doubts over their motives for the kidnap. The demanded amount of money, equivalent to about 6 million won per each hostage, is a tenth of the ransoms demanded in most kidnapping cases in Mexico.

It is hardly understood why the kidnappers released the Korean hostages in the middle of the city and phoned the police to inform them of the release and their location.

○ The real motive of the incident?

Some foreign media outlets reported that the Mexican local authority believes the incident is related to a bungled people-smuggle into the United States.

Tamaulipas state police in charge of the investigation said in an interview with Reuters, “Although the Koreans apparently sought to illegally enter the United States through the kidnappers, the abductors seemingly changed their minds to benefit from the larger ransoms.”

A ministry official also stated, “A host of factors indicate that this isn’t a simple kidnapping case … in particular, we don’t rule out the possibility of acquaintance between the kidnappers and the Korean hostages.”

srkim@donga.com