Korean reporter shot dead in Paco

A Korean businessman, who also moonlighted as a newspaper reporter, was found dead from gunshot wounds inside his SUV in Paco, Manila last Tuesday night.

The bloated body of Ku Kug Jin, 45, of 9B Patag steet, BF Homes, Parañaque City, was found in the backseat of his gold Ford Escape (XNH-233) by a passing mobile car crew.

The body bore three gunshot wounds in the chest.

Officer-on-case SPO3 Diomedes Labarda said the vehicle had been parked in front of a house on Gen. Luna street in Paco since Monday morning.

A scavenger hailed a passing police car after smelling a foul odor coming from the parked vehicle the following night.

The victim, who was reportedly part owner of a resort in Anilao, Batangas, also worked as a reporter for the Korean Post, a weekly South Korean newspaper. Copies of the paper are reportedly circulated in Parañaque City.

He was married to a Filipina and had a six-year-old daughter.

In his report, Labarda said the Korean received a call last Monday morning.

He had agreed to meet the unidentified caller.

Since then the Korean failed to return home.

The victim’s wife, Mona Labadan, reported her husband’s disappearance to police at Camp Crame.

Homicide investigators are now tracing the identity of the victim’s last caller, saying the person could shed light on the circumstances surrounding the slaying of the Korean.