The Tamesis
March 6, 2026
Seoul – President Lee Jae-myung said he asked Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to allow the temporary transfer of a jailed South Korean drug lord to South Korea for investigation and prosecution.
“One of the difficulties faced by Koreans living abroad is the issue of public safety,” Lee noted during a lunch meeting with members of the Korean community in Manila on Wednesday.
Lee further explained that incidents affecting Korean residents in the Philippines appear to be increasing, while the damage caused by transnational crimes to Korean citizens has decreased significantly recently.
Lee told Koreans living in the Philippines that he made a “formal request to President Marcos” at a summit on Tuesday to temporarily hand over the South Korean criminal.
“Informed people may know that there is a man named Park Mo-yeol. It is said that he killed three Koreans. But this man is still in prison exporting drugs to South Korea,” Lee said.
“I told (Marcos) that even in jail (Park) called his girlfriend over to hang out, and he kept exporting drugs through Telegram.”
Lee’s comments appeared to be a reference to Park Wang-yeol, a South Korean national once known as the “Telegram drug lord.”
Parker was arrested by Philippine authorities in October 2020 after escaping from prison twice and is currently serving a 60-year sentence. He is widely believed to be the ringleader of a brutal killing in 2016, when three Koreans were gunned down in a sugar cane field in Bacolol, Pampanga.
South Korean media reported that Park Geun-hye allegedly continued to oversee a large-scale drug trafficking network through the messaging app Telegram and lived a so-called “privileged prison life” that included the use of a mobile phone.
At the lunch meeting, Lee said he told Marcos, “South Korea needs to investigate and punish this man.”
“I requested that (Park Geun-hye) be temporarily transferred to South Korea under the temporary surrender arrangement, and (President Marcos) said that he would actively review this request as soon as possible and do his best to implement it.”
Lee also addressed the 2016 killing of South Korean businessman Jee Ick-joo, saying he had asked Philippine authorities to “quickly catch the murderer.” Lee said Marcos responded: “I’ll do my best.”
Jee was abducted from his home by three Filipino police officers who later murdered him at the Philippine National Police headquarters. They cremated Jee’s body at the crematorium and dumped his remains in the toilet.
One of the main suspects remains at large.
Lee said Seoul was also considering taking stronger action to bring the fugitives to justice at a luncheon attended by Chi’s widow Choi Kyung-jin.
“In fact, the Republic of Korea is considering even using special capabilities to hunt him down and make every effort to catch him,” Lee said, referring to South Korea’s official name.
Although the case has not yet been resolved, Lee said Philippine authorities have taken “very friendly and substantive measures” toward South Korea.
“It is known that they run an independent organization called the Ministry of Korean Affairs,” Lee said. “They set it up to minimize harm to Koreans and help provide relief to victims. No country other than the Philippines does this.”
Following the summit, South Korea and the Philippines updated their police cooperation agreement on Tuesday, expanding existing cooperation beyond criminal investigations to include police training and arrests of fugitives. The two sides also agreed to establish a bilateral hotline between the police agencies of the two countries.
