RoK police launched the "Vietnamese Desk" on December 17 to better support Vietnamese residents in the RoK while the Vietnamese authorities installed the "Korean Desk" to better serve Korean residents in the Southeast Asian nation.
These moves came after the police chiefs of the two nations signed a memorandum of understanding over the teams last month.
The Vietnamese Desk in RoK police's agency has two Vietnamese-speaking Korean police officers who will comprehensively cover Vietnamese-related crimes, whereas four Korean-speaking Vietnamese officers will be dispatched to the Korean Desk.
This is the first time that RoK police has launched a special team dedicated to a particular foreign country. It is the second time that a special probe team for Koreans has been installed in a foreign country — the first being in the Philippines in 2012.
With the two special police teams, the two sides will share the investigation information and jointly put efforts into nabbing runaway criminals and repatriating them to their home countries, Seoul officials said.
Addressing the inaugural ceremony of the “Vietnamese Desk”, Vietnamese Ambassador to the RoK Pham Huu Chi provided that around 150,000 Koreans live in Vietnam and nearly 140,000 Vietnamese live in the RoK.
The establishment of this liaison channel between the two police forces will help protect legitimate interests and rights of respective citizens, he said.
