South Korea and Malaysia sign new police pact to hit transnational scam networks with joint ops and asset recovery

The two national police chiefs agreed to faster intelligence sharing, coordinated operations, and stronger financial disruption tools as “scam-compound” cases across Southeast Asia keep escalating.

South Korea’s National Police Agency and Malaysia’s Royal Malaysia Police have signed a new memorandum of understanding to strengthen cooperation against transnational crime, with a clear focus on online fraud and scam compounds operating across Southeast Asia.

The agreement was signed in Seoul on Wednesday, 4 February 2026, by Acting Commissioner General Yoo Jae-seong and Malaysia’s Inspector-General of Police Mohd Khalid Ismail, on the sidelines of bilateral talks.

Under the MOU, both sides committed to rapid information sharing and joint police actions, including the arrest and repatriation of fugitives, as well as tighter cooperation on freezing and recovering criminal proceeds.

Korean officials framed the move as a response to fast-rising cross-border online fraud. Reporting around the talks highlighted that Korea’s voice-phishing losses were estimated at about ₩1 trillion last year, while Malaysia recorded 277 million ringgit in losses from online and financial fraud.

The cooperation also puts financial “enablers” in the spotlight. The same reporting noted Malaysia’s recent legal tightening around “borrowed-name” bank accounts and mechanisms for faster account freezing, areas both sides want to exchange enforcement playbooks on to prevent criminals from shifting operations across borders.

Yoo additionally asked Malaysia to join a Korea-led international investigative cooperation body launched last October, signalling that the partnership is meant to scale beyond a bilateral channel into broader multilateral coordination.