South Korean killer’s drone escape from Philippine prison foiled by test footage

Asia - South China Morning Post · Sep 16, 2026

A South Korean crime lord convicted of murder in the Philippines reportedly planned to escape prison by strapping himself to a drone – until his own accomplice’s rehearsal footage gave the game away. Park Wang-yeol, 47, was sentenced in 2022 to 60 years behind bars for the killing of three South Koreans in a sugar cane field outside Bacolod City in 2016, a crime that earned him the nickname “sugar cane field killer”. The drone-assisted escape plot was planned for earlier this year, in the weeks...