The South Korean ambassador to Egypt arrived in Sinai on Saturday to follow up the case of three South Koreans kidnapped there on Friday, according to Egypt's Youm7 news website.
The website said the ambassador was notified of the kidnapping by the Egyptian authorities, who are working to release the two tourists and their two tour guides — one Korean and one Egyptian.
Sinai has seen a surge in lawlessness over the past year as armed tribesmen and Islamist militants have asserted their power and clashed with security forces.
Last week, two American female tourists were briefly kidnapped in Sinai by armed tribesmen.
Tribesmen occasionally abduct tourists to use in negotiations with the government over the release of imprisoned tribe members. Tourists are rarely harmed.
The two Americans said afterward that their captors were polite and served them tea and dried fruit.
Major General Mohammed Naguib, security chief of South Sinai Governorate, said on Friday that the Koreans' captors seek the release of Salim Oda, who was arrested Thursday morning after a failed attempt to rob a bank in the Red Sea resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh.
South Korean officials said on Saturday that the country’s foreign ministry will exert its best efforts to secure the release of its citizens, Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported.
"The South Korean Embassy in Egypt launched an on-site emergency team to handle the issue immediately after recognizing the kidnapping and requested the country's foreign ministry and police take all possible measures, including a quick and fair investigation, necessary to secure the safety of the kidnapped Korean nationals," Yonhap quoted a Korean official as saying.
The agency added that officials in South Korea called for an emergency meeting on Saturday to discuss how to deal with the incident and how to protect South Korean nationals in Egypt from further kidnappings.
The ministry is considering raising its alert level on travel to Egypt from its current level of two to three — just one level short of a full travel ban, Yonhap reported.
