Korean driver shot and killed in Philippines

A middle-aged Korean man living in Baguio, 200 kilometers (124 miles) north of Manila, was shot to death Saturday while driving in the downtown area, Korea’s Foreign Affairs Ministry said.

The ministry said there is no known motive or suspects yet. Witnesses at the scene reportedly told Filipino police that two to three armed men committed the murder and fled.

The victim, who is in his early 50s, was taken to a nearby hospital after the shooting but died during surgery. The Foreign Affairs Ministry said the Korean Embassy in Manila was cooperating with local police to figure out further details.

It was the fifth incident of homicide involving Koreans in the Philippines this year. Seven Koreans have been killed. The most recent case took place Oct. 12, when three Koreans were found dead in a sugarcane field in the rural town of Bacolor, 47 miles northwest of Manila, with gunshot wounds to their heads.

Korean police later said the three victims turned out to be primary suspects in an investment fraud worth 15 billion won ($13.25 million). The three individuals appeared to have left Korea before police formally launched an investigation.

The Korean government has been alerted to the number of Korean nationals killed in the Philippines in recent years - six in 2012, 12 in 2013, 10 in 2014 and 11 in 2015.

The Foreign Affairs Ministry said last week that an elderly Korean couple living in Mindanao, in the southern Philippines, has been missing since April 23 after taking a ship departing from Samar Island.

BY LEE SUNG-EUN [lee.sungeun@joongang.co.kr]