Story highlights
South Korean taken from his car in Tripoli, Yonhap News Agency reports
His whereabouts and motive for abduction unknown
Seoul tells South Koreans in Libya to leave the North African country
Libya government struggling to impose law and order
A South Korean trade official abducted this week in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, has been rescued and his kidnappers detained, authorities said Thursday.
Libyan security forces have arrested the four men who abducted Han, 39, and determined that they were members of “an armed group,” the ministry said without providing further details on their identity or the reason for the kidnapping.
Han is the head of the Libya unit of the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency.
The gunmen stopped Han’s car, took him and drove westward, Yonhap quoted a South Korean foreign ministry official as saying. It said there had been no word from the kidnappers yet. Their identities and the reason for the abduction were unknown.
Han is understood to be unharmed so far, Yonhap reported Tuesday, citing an unidentified South Korean government official.
Libya’s government and fragile state security forces are struggling to impose law and order in a country awash with weapons left over from the 2011 war that ousted dictator Moammar Gadhafi.
Militias, former rebel fighters and militants have refused to lay down their arms and often resort to force to impose their demands on the weak central authorities.
This month, gunmen shot dead Libya’s deputy industry minister in the first assassination of a transitional government official since Gadhafi’s ouster in October 2011.
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