Jeju Police Officer Admits Faking Missing-Person Case Closures to Avoid Extra Work—25 More Cases Under Review

JEJU, South Korea — A South Korean police officer has admitted to falsely closing missing-person cases because he wanted to avoid the additional workload of keeping them open, authorities said Tuesday.

The revelation has intensified scrutiny of police procedures on Jeju Island after two missing people whose cases were allegedly mishandled were later found dead.

The officer, identified by police as a 34-year-old corporal surnamed Bu, was sent to prosecutors in custody on Tuesday. He faces allegations including dereliction of duty, falsifying and using official electronic records, and obstruction of official duties through deception.

He admitted he never made the calls

According to the Jeju Provincial Police Agency, Bu initially claimed that he had contacted the missing people before closing their cases.

Investigators later found that the claimed conversations had not taken place. Bu subsequently admitted that he had lied.

Police said he told investigators that he had treated one case too casually because the missing person was an ordinary adult. He also said he wanted to avoid the work and responsibility involved in keeping an unresolved case open and eventually handing it over.

The admission came after authorities investigated the disappearance of Jang Mi-ran, a 37-year-old woman, whose missing-person report was allegedly closed without police confirming that she was safe.

Jang disappeared in May. Her body was eventually discovered on Aug. 24, 104 days after she went missing, at a palm-tree farm roughly 400 meters from the lodging where she had been staying.

Police said the condition of Jang’s remains was too advanced for an autopsy to establish a definitive cause of death. Investigators are continuing to examine the circumstances surrounding her death.

A second missing person was also found dead

The investigation uncovered another case allegedly handled in a similar manner.

A man in his 60s was reported missing in July. Police allege that Bu recorded the case as though contact with the man had been established, despite not actually speaking with him.

The man’s family later reported him missing again, prompting another search. His body was found on Aug. 22, about 51 days after he was initially reported missing.

The two deaths were not reported as being connected to one another. Reuters noted that four people reported missing on Jeju were found dead over a three-day period in late August, although authorities said the cases were unrelated.

Investigation expands to 25 more cases

What initially appeared to involve two cases has now grown significantly.

Police said Bu handled 298 missing-person cases while assigned to the missing-person team at Jeju Seobu Police Station from March 2025 until July 2026.

A subsequent review identified 25 additional cases suspected of having been prematurely closed. Ten involved cases in which police allegedly closed the reports without confirming the missing person’s whereabouts. Police said those 10 people were later confirmed to be safe.

The remaining 15 cases involved records being removed or altered after the person’s whereabouts had already been confirmed. Police said entries included reasons such as a traffic-accident death or an unnatural death.

The figures have raised questions about how missing-person cases were monitored and reviewed inside the station.

Police face wider accountability questions

The scandal has also triggered scrutiny beyond the individual officer.

Reuters reported that South Korean President Lee Jae Myung called for greater police accountability following public outrage over the Jeju cases. The country’s police leadership has apologized and promised institutional changes.

Among the proposed measures is requiring supervisory approval for the closure of missing-person cases while police work on upgrading their case-management system. Four officers in the command chain at the Jeju station were also placed on administrative leave as the investigation continued.

The controversy comes at a particularly sensitive time for South Korea’s police. Reuters reported that police are preparing to assume a significantly expanded role in criminal investigations following changes to the country’s law-enforcement structure.

Official figures cited by Reuters show that South Korean police received 70,814 reports involving missing adults in 2025, with more than 70,000 such reports filed annually since 2022. Police say the overwhelming majority are resolved within 30 days.

The question now goes beyond one officer

For investigators, the immediate task is determining whether Bu’s actions were limited to the cases already identified or whether additional people may have been placed at risk.

The Jeju District Prosecutors’ Office is expected to examine whether there were further false closures, why the records were manipulated and whether anyone suffered harm as a result. The National Police Agency is also investigating the supervisors and colleagues responsible for oversight at the time.

What began as an investigation into two allegedly mishandled missing-person reports has therefore become a much broader examination of police accountability, workload pressures and the safeguards meant to prevent a missing person from simply disappearing from the system.

WWC ONE MEDIA G.A