Four police officers suspended in South Korea over missing persons cases
Four senior officers at the Jeju Seobu Police Station in South Korea have been suspended from duty in connection with the cases of two missing people who were later found dead. This was reported by The Korea Herald, citing the National Police Agency.
Those suspended include the current station chief, the official who headed it at the time 37-year-old Jang Mi-ran went missing, the head of the detective unit and the leader of the team handling missing-person reports. The agency is conducting an internal review to determine whether they properly supervised the handling of the cases and whether they should be held accountable for shortcomings in management and oversight.
Suspicions over case closures
At the center of the investigation is a police officer surnamed Bu, aged between 30 and 39. According to police, he allegedly closed missing-person cases by falsely claiming that he had confirmed the missing individuals were safe. He is accused, among other things, of failing to perform official duties, falsifying and using official electronic records, and obstructing the performance of official duties through deception.
Investigators believe Bu closed Jang Mi-ran's case by claiming that he had spoken with her. He told her family that the woman did not want to disclose her whereabouts. However, investigators found no records of such a conversation on either his personal or work phone, or on Jang's phone.
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After the case was closed, the family filed a new missing-person report in Seoul on July 19. During that time, potentially important evidence was lost: surveillance camera footage near the woman's home had already been deleted before police began reviewing it. A body that investigators believe to be Jang Mi-ran's was found on Monday at a palm farm about 400 meters from her home, 104 days after her disappearance was reported.
298 cases under review
Police also determined that Bu allegedly closed another case in a similar manner, involving a man in his 60s who was later found dead on August 22. The man's wife had told police that he had substantial business-related debts and, before leaving home on June 28, expressed thoughts to his children that could have raised concerns about his safety.
Law enforcement officers are reviewing all 298 missing-person reports that Bu handled and closed. Police agencies across the country have also begun reviewing previously closed cases. In Busan, authorities are examining reports filed from January 2024 through July this year: during that period, 25,376 of 25,605 cases were closed. In Seoul, about 92,800 closed cases dating from January 2024 are being reviewed separately.
Bu was urgently detained on August 22, but a Jeju court released him on Monday, stating that the legally required urgency for such detention was absent. Police then applied for a warrant for his arrest. Yoo Jae-sung, acting head of the National Police Agency, apologized for the handling of Jang's case, and police strengthened management-level reviews before closing missing-person cases.
