A Korean teenager has gone missing in Turkey near the Syrian border, the Foreign Ministry said Saturday, following news reports suggesting the involvement of the Islamic State militant group.
The 18-year-old tourist, from Seoul, vanished on Jan. 10 after leaving a hotel in the border town of Kilis, the ministry said. He entered Turkey two days earlier for an eight-day trip with another man, who reported his disappearance to the Korean Embassy on Jan. 12.
Turkish daily Milliyet reported that the missing man had been exchanging emails with IS members and might have entered Syria to join the group.
“The embassy dispatched officials Tuesday and have since been tracking him down in cooperation with local police,” the ministry said in a statement.
“We are not able to confirm that he crossed the Syrian border and are mobilizing all available channels to locate the missing teenager, keeping all possibilities in mind.”
The hotel the missing Korean teenager stayed in Kilis, Turkey. (Yonhap)
But the ministry denied reports that a man who was recently arrested in Kilis for illegal entry had claimed that he was a Korean national who had escaped from the IS.
In Seoul, the missing teenager’s mother said he had a Turkish pen pal named Hassan and had last spoken with the family on the day he vanished.
The National Intelligence Service has also secured his computer for analysis, an official at the Geumcheon district police office said.
The ministry has issued a travel warning for southeastern Turkey, especially within 10 kilometers of the Syrian border. Some Koreans have previously visited the region for missionary or volunteer work at Syrian refugee camps.
Seoul and Damascus have no official diplomatic relations.
In September, a Saudi Arabian IS member said in an interview that the group consists of fighters of various nationalities including Korean. Seoul officials said the claim was unreliable.
Some 3,000 people in Turkey are believed to be linked to the extremist group, a Turkish intelligence report said Saturday, calling for stepped-up surveillance in the wake of the deadly attack on Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has also said that up to 700 Turkish nationals had joined the IS. Ankara has barred more than 7,200 people who were thought to be seeking IS membership from entering Turkey, while deporting nearly 1,200 would-be jihadists, he added.
By Shin Hyon-hee (heeshin@heraldcorp.com)
