SKorea looks into shooting deaths in Philippines

By Alex Jensen

SEOUL

Three South Korean citizens were recently shot dead in the Philippines, according to Seoul’s foreign ministry Thursday -- raising further concerns about safety in a country that has been drawing global headlines for its brutal crackdown on drug dealers.

The bodies of two men and a woman in their 40s and 50s were found with gunshot wounds Tuesday in a sugar cane field in the province of Pampanga, Central Luzon.

A Seoul official cited by Yonhap News Agency said that at least two of the victims were tied up, drawing grisly comparisons with the killings of thousands of drug suspects in the Philippines since President Rodrigo Duterte took office June 30.

South Korea’s embassy in Manila is looking into the circumstances of the shooting alongside local police.

Six people from the South have now been killed in the Philippines this year, in addition to 11 in 2015 based on ministry data -- which also places the number of South Koreans living in the Southeast Asian country at around 100,000.

One of the deceased was a missionary who was murdered north of Manila back in May.