South Korea Official Kidnapped in Libya

Jan. 19, 2014 11:07 p.m. ETSEOUL — A South Korean trade agency official has been kidnapped in Libya, a country still mired in instability following the ouster and death of Moammar Gadhafi in October 2011, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Seoul said.
Han Seok-woo, the head of the Libya unit of the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency, was kidnapped by four unidentified men late Sunday in Tripoli as he returned home after work, a ministry spokesman said Monday.
“His car, driven by an Iraqi driver, was stopped by four armed people at around 5:30 p.m. local time, and then he was taken away,” the spokesman said, adding that he doesn’t know the identity of the kidnappers or their motives.
Officials at the trade promotion agency said Mr. Han, aged 39, has worked in Libya’s capital Tripoli since 2012. The foreign ministry has asked the Libyan government to help locate Mr. Han and secure his release, the spokesman said.
Many parts of Libya have been hit by violence and unrest in recent years. The country’s deputy industry minister was shot dead earlier this month and Tripoli declared a state of emergency on Saturday after fresh clashes with armed groups in the south, according to reports.
South Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs plans to issue a special travel warning on Libya, banning South Koreans from traveling to the country, the spokesman said. Embassy staff won’t be ordered to leave, he said.
South Korea established diplomatic relations with Libya in 1980 and it has an embassy in Tripoli. Libya’s imports from South Korea include automobiles, electronics goods and construction equipment, the trade promotion agency said. South Korea mostly imports crude oil and oil products from Libya.
Write to In-Soo Nam at In-Soo.Nam@wsj.com

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