A body found in Brisbane; suspected to be a missing Korean

A 28-year-old Korean student who was in Brisbane for a working holiday program went missing on Monday. Local police started investigation. The Brisbane Times said on Thursday that Kim is dead already and a body suspected to be his was found in Algester, south of Brisbane.

Kim went to Australia with a working holiday visa in 2011 and worked at a meat packing plant in Cannon Hill for two years. He was planning to return to Korea in January next year.

Brisbane police started to find him after his housemate Park reported him missing. Police found that 15,000 Australian dollars were withdrawn from his bank account right before he went missing. A body suspected to be his was found buried in a shallow grave at Algester on late Wednesday and early Thursday morning.

A source from the Foreign Affairs Ministry of Korea said, “The Australian police is confirming if the body is his. We’re waiting for an announcement from the local police.”

The Korean community in Australia is reeling from the incident. It came less than a month from the killing of a 22-year-old Korean woman who was known by her last name Ban. She also came to Australia with a working holiday visa and was killed on Albert Street in a Brisbane CBD on Nov. 24.

Asians including Koreans have been a soft target for criminals in Australia for the past few years. A majority of the cases can be seen as hate crime.

Some say that the Korean government must take appropriate actions and people have to understand correctly the working holiday program that is notorious for poor working conditions. Many Korean young people in a working holiday program work more than 10 hours a day at a farm or a meat packing plant but paid only 200,000 won (188.9 U.S. dollars) per week. Ban was killed when she left her home at 3:30 a.m. to work for a hotel as a cleaning lady.