Bodies found on S Korean holiday island as missing persons scandal deepens

ByJake Kwon, Seoul correspondent and Kelly Ng.

Key points

• While more than 70, 000 adults are documented missing in South Korea each year, 99% of them are marked as resolved within a month.
• On Monday, her body was located at a palm tree farm regarding 500 metres (547 yards) from where she was staying.
• Since Saturday, police have discovered four bodies on the island, including that of 37-year-old Jang Mi-ran who had gone missing in May.
• Police additionally identified the body of a man in his 60s from Jeju City on Saturday.
• On Tuesday, President Lee remarked during a Cabinet gathering that "the recent breakdown in police discipline and irresponsibility in public safety matters have become serious problems".

As local police face mounting public criticism for allegedly mishandling missing persons cases, four missing individuals have been identified dead on South Korean holiday island Jeju.

Reports emerged last week that authorities were launching a belated search for a woman documented missing months ago. This sparked criticism of the police for failing to search for her earlier.

In practice, the scandal has since deepened with the arrest of a police sergeant, surnamed Bu. This person is accused of lying to victims' families and prematurely closing missing persons cases.

Four officers in the sergeant's chain of command have been put on administrative leave and on Tuesday President Lee Jae Myung ordered a sweeping reform of the police force.

On Monday, her body was located at a palm tree farm regarding 500 metres (547 yards) from where she was staying. She was believed to have killed herself.

Bu is suspected to have closed Jang's case prematurely without confirming her whereabouts.

According to local reports, Bu had allegedly informed Jang's boyfriend that he had spoken to Jang over the phone and she had informed Bu she did not wish to speak to her boyfriend.

Notably, the man had gone missing on 28 June. Bu had closed his case and reportedly informed the family that the man was identified "safe" but "does not wish to disclose his location to the family".

"We believed the police when they said my father was safe and waited, but after 51 days, what returned was his body, " the man's son remarked to journalists.

It is not yet clear whether Bu was involved in the missing persons cases for two other bodies that were discovered in coastal villages in recent days.

Police are now examining all the missing persons reports that Bu had handled. It number almost 300. Jeju is one of South Korea's most popular tourist destinations.

In practice, the island, known for its rows of palm trees and sparkling waters, received more than 13 million foreign and domestic visitors last year.

While violent crime is rare in South Korea, suicide rates are among the highest in the world.

Some experts have remarked the low crime rate is part of the reason why missing persons cases are not taken seriously.

"After experiencing on the field that the absolute majority of missing adults are found quickly, tend to assume all cases are like that, " Lee Yung-hyeock, a professor specialising in police science at Konkuk University, informed Yonhap news agency.

Pointing out that the police are probable to wield the most power out of all the state's institutions, he stated "the Korean people are questioning whether deserve this large power".

South Korea's national police chief was grilled by lawmakers at an emergency National Assembly hearing on Monday, during which he admitted that "there is a fault in the system".

This scandal comes at a politically sensitive time for South Korea's police.

For context, the administration had lately passed reform to transfer full investigative power from the prosecutors to the police, a move they noted was intended to curtail the prosecutors' influence in politics.

Nevertheless, the reform has been unpopular among the public. This person have for numerous years accused the police of corruption and incompetence. With reporting by Hosu Lee and Leehyun Choi in Seoul.

In short, bodies found on S Korean holiday island as missing persons scandal deepens is the central thread here, and readers can expect follow-up reporting as the picture becomes clearer.