I added the map above to highlight South Korea.
Korea Now published August 24, 2026: "Police said she was safe..." Bodies of missing people found on Jeju Island.
*********
The Korea Herald
written by Lim Jae-seong
Monday August 24, 2026
What began as allegations that a police officer had falsely closed a missing-person case on Jeju Island has grown into a broader test of Korea’s system for handling disappearances, prompting nationwide reviews and a presidential call for police reform.
A body believed to be that of 37-year-old Jang Mi-ran, who had been missing for more than three months, was found Monday at a palm farm in Hallim-eup, Jeju Island, 104 days after she was reported missing.
The case took on added significance after investigators found that the same officer had allegedly closed another missing-person case in a similar manner. The man in his 60s at the center of that case was also later found dead.
President Lee Jae Myung on Monday ordered a thorough investigation into police handling of the cases and a broader review of how missing-person cases are closed, as well as how officers are supervised.
“The president instructed authorities to thoroughly establish the facts surrounding the entire police investigation process, while also reviewing the overall system for closing cases and for command and supervision,” presidential spokesperson Kang Yu-jung said at a briefing.
“The president also instructed police to come up with their own reform plan, including institutional improvements or more fundamental reform measures,” she said.
Acting National Police Agency Commissioner Yoo Jae-seong apologized Monday for the handling of Jang’s case. He said the body was believed to show signs consistent with hanging, with no evidence of foul play found so far.
Following Lee’s order, the agency launched an internal inspection into the case and moved to require senior-level verification before missing-person cases can be closed.
Officer accused of false closures released
Jang was reported missing on May 15.
The officer assigned to her case, a man in his 30s surnamed Bu, allegedly told Jang’s family that he had contacted her and that she did not wish to remain in touch with them. He then allegedly removed her case from the missing-person profiling system.
Investigators later found no evidence that such contact had taken place after reviewing communication records, police said.
Bu is also under investigation over a second missing-person case involving a man in his 60s who was reported missing on July 2.
Bu allegedly gave the man’s family a similar account, saying he had reached the missing man and that the man did not want contact with his relatives. That case was also subsequently closed and removed from the missing-person system.
The man’s body was found Saturday, several days after police reopened the case and launched an extensive search. Authorities said there were no apparent signs of foul play in his death.
Police sought an arrest warrant for Bu early Monday on suspicion of dereliction of duty, falsifying electronic official records and using falsified records.
But the Jeju District Court ordered Bu released around 2:30 p.m., after granting his request for a review of the legality of his arrest. The court found no urgent need to keep him in custody.
Police face mounting criticism
The revelations have raised broader questions over whether missing-person reports elsewhere may have been closed without police adequately confirming the whereabouts and safety of those reported missing.
The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency said Monday it is reviewing some 92,800 missing-person reports that were filed and later closed in the capital from January 2024 through this month.
Park Jeong-bo, the Seoul police chief, said the review is intended to determine whether officers missed any cases when closing reports without meeting the subject in person or carrying out comparable verification.
Since November 2024, Seoul police have operated under guidelines requiring officers to confirm a missing person’s status through measures such as an in-person meeting, a video call or direct contact involving family members before closing a case.
The review is expected to continue through the end of November.
Police on Jeju Island are also reviewing other missing-person cases handled by Bu to determine whether any others were improperly closed.
Questions are also mounting over the police search for Jang after the body believed to be hers was found about 400 meters from the accommodation where she had been staying.
Police did not begin reviewing surveillance footage in the Hallim-eup area until 98 days after Jang was initially reported missing. By then, footage that is typically stored for around 30 days had already been deleted, making it difficult for investigators to retrace her movements.
After Jang was reported missing again Wednesday, beginning Thursday police deployed an average of 140 personnel a day to conduct an extensive search near Hallim Port, based on mobile phone location data.
The port is farther from where Jang stayed than the location where the body was ultimately found.
“The location where Jang’s body was found was also within the radius of a mobile base station covering Hallim Port, where we had been conducting searches,” a police official told local media.
“In rural areas, mobile base stations are not installed as densely, so the radius covered by location data tends to be wider.”
No comments:
Post a Comment