Airport lobby packed with people leaving Korea for trips abroad.

On Feb. 6, another Korean, who was completely plastered, was arrested in Cebu for assaulting two waiters in a hotel karaoke club.

Local police said that while they were escorting the man to the station, he kicked the police car's door and screamed in Korean. Recently, in the Angeles City area, a Korean professional golfer, Chun Ho-sang, was shot dead by bar employees.

Korean expatriates in the Philippines pointed out that "As far as the incidents and accidents involving Koreans are concerned, there are many cases of unseeming behavior by Koreans becoming problems."

The United Korean Community Association, a group concerned with the Korean community in the Philippines, has started a sticker campaign, posting such slogans as "Let's Preserve our Dignity as Koreans" and "Let's Become Good Koreans" on businesses run by the expatriate Korean community. Recently, four Korean golfers were sent to an immigration detention center on charges of committing "dangerous acts" against a local at a golf course in the Angeles City area. It's known that in the Angeles City area, where Koreans are flocking in droves, anti-Korean sentiment among locals has reached a serious level.

In Southeast Asia, the outrageous behavior of Korean tourists isn't confined to the golf course. According to Jay, a 44 year old operator of a golf tour business in the Philippines, "90 percent of the tourists, once they finish golfing, ask if the can experience the local 'night culture.'" On Tuesday, the Korean Embassy in Manilla warned, "Thoughtless acts by our citizens are likely to cause unnecessary friction with Filipinos, and they can cause damage to the prestige of both they entire Korean community in the Philippines and the Korean nation."

In late 2001, in the middle of Indonesia's Ramadhan holiday season, Koreans at a karaoke club in Jakarta, after getting smashed on boilermakers, tried to coerce the club's female workers to engage in sexual relations with them. When they were refused, the ensuing riot was widely broadcast on local news. According to an employee of a private school specializing in study-abroad programs in the Philippines, "It's a common occurrence for Korean golfers to drink and then curse at caddies or throw tips in their faces." He said during matches, Koreans speak to local caddies in really coarse Korean, saying things like, "Hey, you @#$*, can't you find the ball?"

In addition, local guides say many Korean tourists come prepared with 1.5 liter bottles of soju brought from home. A guide for a travel agency specializing in tours to Bangkok, Thailand, said, "There are quite a few male tourists who, when riding buses, drink from start to finish and scream boisterously." During the day, they snore away sleeping in their buses -- red faced, of course -- and at night, they patrol the local bars and karaoke clubs. This is their basic pattern of behavior, said the guide.

There are those pointing out that unseeming behavior on the part of Korean businesses in Southeast Asia is also provoking bad feelings amongst the locals. According to the Export-Import Bank of Korea, Asia was the largest recipient of overseas Korean investment from 1968, when such investment began, to 2003. When you look at number of investments, excluding China, the United States, and Japan, the next largest targets were all Southeast Asian countries -- the Philippines (3.4 percent), Indonesia (3.2 percent), Vietnam (2.2 percent), Malaysia (1.5 percent), and Thailand (1.4 percent). That's how involved Korean businesses are in the region.

Recently, the owner of a bag making business in Sri Lanka secretly fled the country overnight after bankrupting the company to finance his gambling habit. The furious local workers kidnapped and confined the remaining Korean employees and flocked to the Korean Embassy in protest. This is a prototypic example of what the Labor Ministry, Foreign Ministry, International Labor Foundation, Korean Employers Federation, and Federation of Korean Trade Unions found during a join study on labor conditions of Korean business in Sri Lanka.

According to a white paper on human rights conditions of Korean businesses abroad, published by the Korean House for International Solidarity, hundreds of employees at a sewing shop in Indonesia launched a protest in front of the Korean Embassy in Jakarta when the Korean boss fled without paying them 3 billion rupiah (about W500 million) in salaries. At a handbag factory in Vietnam, the Korean vice president of the company brutally assaulted a door-keeper because the company's door was not closed properly. Authorities confiscated his passport. At another factory in Vietnam, a Korean manager slapped the cheeks of female workers with a shoe for making small talk in the factory. He was deported from the country.

Illegal Korean immigrants in those countries are causing problems both large and small. Because of this, on the bulletin boards of every Korean embassy in Southeast Asia, there are countless appeals like "We're looking for Mr. XXX, who conned us out of tons of money and fled" and "Please catch Mr. YYY, who embezzled our money and fled." On Feb. 2, 33 Koreans who were doing missionary work in the Philippines were barred from leaving Korea and kept in the an Immigration Department confinement cell when counterfeit immigration stamps were discovered in their passports.

On Feb. 5, the Korean Embassy in Manila warned, "If you think that entering the country illegally is expedient, there are limits to how much help we can offer if the local authorities find out." Consul General Jo Hui-yong said Wednesday, "the 'Korean Wave Craze' is spreading in Southeast Asia, but we mustn't allow some thoughtless tourists to ruin Korea's entire image." Expressing concern, he said, "Not just on the golf course, but at tourist sites, airports, and other places, incidents causing friction between Koreans and locals are continuing to occur."

(Pak Min-seon, sunrise@chosun.com )