Buwalda was in contact with his father last Tuesday, according to RUG spokesperson Gernant Deekens. ‘We are very glad that he is safe and sound’, says Deekens. Buwalda’s father travelled to Seoul to look for his son.
Buwalda is reportedly an economics and business economics student at the RUG. What exactly happened to him in South Korea remains unclear, according to Deekens. Several friends of his posted a message looking for information about him in the Korea subreddit last week.
Many tips were submitted to the thread. One suggested that Buwalda had never attended any lectures in Seoul and may not have even been enrolled at the university. Those comments could not be independently confirmed.
One friend in Groningen who was concerned about Buwalda’s disappearance said that he knew nothing beyond the fact that he had been found. ‘Great news! Thank you everyone for sharing the message. We couldn’t have done it without you’, he wrote on Facebook.