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Ko Pyeong-gi, commissioner of the Jeju Provincial Police Agency, enters the memorial altar set up for Ms. Jang, a woman in her 30s, at the Jungang Hospital funeral home in Iho-dong, Jeju City, on the 27th. / Yonhap News

Ko Pyeong-gi, commissioner of the Jeju Provincial Police Agency, apologized for the false closure of the missing person case involving 37-year-old Jang Mi-ran in Jeju.

During his opening remarks at a Jeju Provincial Police Agency leadership meeting on the morning of the 27th, Commissioner Ko bowed his head and said, "I bow my head in apology to the two deceased who ultimately could not return to their families, and to the bereaved families who must be enduring unspeakable, deep sorrow."

Later, during a Q&A session with the press corps, Commissioner Ko expressed disbelief over the actions of Senior Police Officer Boo, stating that investigative efforts are focused on determining the motive behind the conduct. "I cannot understand it at all. It was neither tied to performance evaluations nor rewards, so I cannot see why the case was falsely closed," Ko said. "We are focusing our efforts on uncovering the motive."

Addressing criticism that transitioning to an open public investigation was delayed, Commissioner Ko replied, "Even when the first media report came out on the 18th, Officer Boo maintained that phone contact was ongoing. At that point, we could not immediately conclude it was false." He added, "Furthermore, as a rule, location tracking or sending missing person emergency alerts is not permitted in adult missing person cases."

Regarding the timing of when the situation was reported to him, he stated, "I received the first report on the 11th, when the pre-booking internal investigation into Officer Boo began. The criterion for reporting to the commissioner is risk severity, but at the time of the initial report on May 15, no risk was detected."

Dismissing allegations raised by some that the incident was covered up ahead of promotion evaluations, Ko stated, "That is completely untrue. What does that have to do with anything? This is not something that could be hidden even if attempted. I hope there are no such misunderstandings."

After Jang left her accommodation in May, a missing person report was filed. However, Senior Police Officer Boo from the Jeju Seobu Police Station, who handled the case, deceived the reporting person and the family with a false claim that contact had been made with Jang but she wished not to disclose her location, ultimately closing the case falsely. Officer Boo subsequently deleted Jang's case from the police internal system and blocked any re-registration of the report. The investigation into Jang's case resumed last month after her relatives filed a report in Seoul, and following the recent emergence of false closure allegations, Jang's body was discovered on the 24th. Officer Boo had also falsely closed another missing person case involving a man in his 60s, whose body was discovered on the 22nd. Police are conducting an exhaustive investigation into all 298 missing person cases closed by Officer Boo and plan to investigate 310,000 missing person cases closed over the past three years.

                                                                                                            Lee Ha-eun