Cambodia agrees to cooperate in S. Korea’s savings bank probe

SEOUL, July 3 (Yonhap) — South Korea and Cambodia have agreed to closely cooperate in the investigation into suspicions that a scandal-ridden South Korean lender concealed hundreds of billions of won in several development projects in the Southeast Asian country, prosecution officials in Seoul said Sunday.

The agreement was reached during a meeting between South Korea’s Prosecutor-General Kim Joon-gyu and his Cambodian counterpart in Seoul Saturday, they said.

Kim asked his Cambodian counterpart to cooperate in the inquiry into a sum of 419.5 billion won (US$365 million) that Busan Savings Bank allegedly invested in various Cambodian development projects in the form of loans to local companies.

The top prosecutors of South Korea and Cambodia agreed to join hands in the search and retrieval of Busan Savings Bank’s investments missing in Cambodia, said the officials.

Most of the Cambodian development projects, including the building of an airport as part of the Camco City Project, a development on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, have been suspended, with much of the investment money remaining unaccounted for.

Cambodia’s top prosecutor was in Seoul last week to attend a “world summit” of prosecution chiefs and representatives from 107 nations.